RUSSELL BRAND, crazy-haired English funnyman and Hollywood's latest oddball
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He is tasteless, unpleasantly dishevelled and his television programmes don't rate in the UK. Some have described Brit comic Russell Brand as downright odious. So just how has this man come to be one of Hollywood's fastest rising stars?
Virtually unknown in New Zealand, Brand's, er, brand is
set to become a household name with a starring role in the upcoming comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Produced by Judd Apatow - the man behind last year's blockbuster hit Knocked Up - the film is touted as this year's breakthrough comedy.
With another two feature films in the pipeline, starring alongside Reese Witherspoon in Penelope and Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories, Brand has just been named this year's host of the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles in September. It's a pretty big move from the music network, who once sacked Brand from his British hosting duties for coming to work dressed as Osama bin Laden the day after the 9/11 attacks.
So just what other skeletons lurk in Brand's wardrobe? We open the files on the man voted "shagger of the year", who admits he has a "pathological need to perform".
WHO: Russell Edward Brand
BORN: June 4, 1975 in Essex, England
BACKGROUND: Growing up in Essex, Brand's parents separated when he was still an infant and shared custody throughout his childhood.
As his mother battled cancer, Brand was diagnosed with depression and was bulimic at 14. By 16, he was drinking and smoking regularly before he found his passion for performing, starring in a school production of Bugsy Malone.
After earning a scholarship to The Drama Centre in London, Brand was expelled for misbehaving.
"I was a drug addict. I used to smash stuff up, cry, take drugs while at school, I had a mouse live in my hair, broke school property - I was a whirlwind of annoyance. They tolerated it for three years because the work was good but at the end, due to various afflictions and addictions, it deteriorated and I was slung out."
ADDICTIONS: A reformed heroin addict, Brand admits he still struggles with a sex addiction.
"I went to a clinic in Philadelphia for sexual addiction for a month some years ago, but the condition in some of the other characters was so extreme that my own peccadillo for finding women attractive seemed quite minor by comparison.
"I've been five years clean from drugs and alcohol and it's much easier to live without them.
My trousers may be an impediment but they're not nearly so impeding as heroin."
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: After carving out a career as a stand-up comic, known for his calculated-to-shock tales of drugs and whores, Brand took on his first television role presenting MTV's Dance Floor Chart and MTV Select in 2001. He was fired for his bin Laden stunt.
Brand went on to host Big Brother's Big Mouth, before MTV welcomed him back to the fold, to host the chat show 1 Leicester Square.
In 2006, Brand was given his own debate programme Russell Brand's Got Issues, which was a ratings fizzer. A follow-up chat show The Russell Brand Show also failed to pull viewers and was cancelled after five weeks.
That same year, Brand fronted his first awards show, the NME Awards - where Sir Bob Geldof famously called him a ... well, not very nice word - before he was called on the host the 2007 Brit Awards, for which he received a mixed reception.
Last year he made his feature film debut in the critically-panned St Trinian's, starring opposite Colin Firth and Rupert Everett in a frock. From there, the only way is up ...
Forgetting Sarah Marshall opens in cinemas nationwide today.