He also narrated the first series of the " making-of" documentary series Doctor Who Confidential. Pegg also appeared in Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio story Invaders From Mars as Don Chaney, and appeared in the Doctor Who television series, playing the Editor in the 2005 episode " The Long Game". He played mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, in a series of Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the character from British comic 2000 AD. In 2004, Pegg starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger! 50,000 Volts! called Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, in which he played a zombie hunter named Dr. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's zombie film, Land of the Dead. The experience of making a Spaced fantasy sequence featuring zombies led to Pegg and Wright co-writing the "romantic zombie comedy" film Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004, in which Pegg also starred. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. The series was directed by Edgar Wright, with whom Pegg and Stevenson had previously worked on Asylum, and Pegg wrote the character of Mike Watt specifically for his friend Nick Frost. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. Pegg at a premiere for Star Trek in April 2009 There was a time when I was younger where I just wanted to be at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre." Career But, it wasn’t the only thing I ever wanted to do. Then, I drifted into comedy acting through doing stand-up, and that was something that I really enjoyed. "When I graduated from university where I studied theater, film and television, I went into stand-up because comedy was something I enjoyed but also because it offered me a certain autonomy that I wouldn't have if I was sitting and waiting for the phone to ring as an actor. While there, he performed as a member of a comedy troupe called " David Icke" and the Orphans of Jesus, alongside David Walliams, Dominik Diamond, and Jason Bradbury. He graduated from the University of Bristol in 1991 with a BA in Theatre, Film, and Television, titling his undergraduate thesis "A Marxist overview of popular 1970s cinema and hegemonic discourses". Pegg moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire when he was 16 and studied English literature and theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon College.
Pegg attended Castle Hill Primary School, Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School, and The King's School, Gloucester. His parents divorced when he was seven and he took the surname of his stepfather (Pegg) after his mother remarried. Pegg was born and raised in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, the son of Gillian Rosemary ( née Smith), a former civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician and keyboard salesman.