Frank Skinner, (born Christopher Graham Collins on 28 January 1957) is an English writer and comedian.
Born in West Bromwich, Collins grew up in Oldbury, West Midlands, England. He attended Moat Farm Infant School from 1961 to 1964, St. Hubert's Roman Catholic Junior School from 1964 to 1968, and then Oldbury Technical Secondary School from September 1968.
He passed 2 O-levels in the summer of 1973 and was allowed to take A-levels in English Language and Art, along with several O-level re-sits, at Oldbury Technical School Sixth Form. But he was caught selling cut-price meal vouchers to pupils and expelled just six weeks into his studies.
He later took 4 A-levels (including English Language and Literature) at night school and then graduated from the Birmingham Polytechnic, now known as UCE Birmingham in 1985 with a degree in English Literature. After graduating, he spent four years as an English lecturer at Halesowen College, whilst being a stand-up comedian in the evening. In 1989 he decided to pursue his comedy career full-time.
Collins took on the pseudonym Frank Skinner when the actors' union Equity told him there was already someone of the same name on their books (their rules do not permit two members with identical names). He took the name from a member of his late father's dominoes team.
Skinner had performed his first stand-up gig in 1987. In 1990 he co-wrote and starred in a sitcom called Packet Of Three on Channel 4.
In 1991 he won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, beating Jack Dee and Eddie Izzard.
He later went on to write and star in Fantasy Football League with fellow comedian David Badiel on BBC radio 5 before it transferred to BBC TV.
From 1995 to 1998, Skinner had his own chat show on BBC One, and moved it to ITV in 1999, where it ran until late 2005.
He has appeared in a number of self-written sitcoms, including Blue Heaven (1992) and Shane (2004). In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. He has lived in London since the beginning of his comedy career in 1991.
In 2005, Skinner announced he was going to leave behind his television work in favour of returning to the stand-up comedy circuit. He had originally signed a multi million pound contract with ITV. They agreed to a two series Sitcom (Shane) but when the first series was poorly received, badly schedule and shodily promoted, ITV made the second series but this has not yet been shown.
Skinner and David Baddiel covered the 2006 FIFA World Cup by podcast for The Times.
In April 2007 Frank was shown learning to play the banjo for a celebrity reality show on the BBC and will also executive produce a CBS pilot version of Shane.
A novel called "Thunderman and Jeff Phillips" is scheduled in late 2007
He has announced a new live stand-up tour, his first for 10 years. He will perform in venues around the UK during September and October 2007. The tour dates are in the live section.