Short Biography

Fry was born in Hampstead, London, the son of Alan Fry, an English physicist, and Marianne Newman, who is of Austrian-Jewish parentage. His mother`s aunt and cousins were killed in Auschwitz concentration camp. Fry grew up in the village of Booton near Reepham, Norfolk, having moved from Chesham, Buckinghamshire when very young.

Fry briefly attended Cawston Primary School, Cawston, Norfolk, described later in his 1997 book Moab Is My Washpot[2] before going on to Stouts Hill Preparatory School, and then to Uppingham School, Rutland, where he joined Fircroft house. He was expelled from Uppingham when he was fifteen, and subsequently from the Paston School. At seventeen, following his failure at Norfolk College of Arts and Technology, Fry absconded with a credit card stolen from a family friend, and as a result spent three months in Pucklechurch Prison for fraud. Following his release he resumed education at Norwich City College, promising administrators that he would study rigorously to sit the Cambridge entrance exams. He passed well enough to gain a scholarship to Queens` College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, Fry gained a degree in English literature, joined the Cambridge Footlights, and appeared on University Challenge.[3] As a member of the Footlights he also met his future comedy collaborator, Hugh Laurie.

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