• Faith: Atheist
• Career: Actor
• Birthday:  June 11, 1959

James Hugh Calum Laurie, known professionally as Hugh Laurie, is an actor, writer, comedian, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one-half of the comedy duo Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two acted together in numerous projects during the 80s and 90s, including the BBC sketch comedy show “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” and the P.G. Wodehouse adaptation “Jeeves and Wooster.”

From 1986 to 1989, he appeared in three series of the period comedy “Blackadder” alongside Rowan Atkinson, first as a recurring guest star in the last two episodes of “Blackadder II,” and remains the only actor in the “Blackadder” series to have played two completely different characters in the same series before joining the main cast in “Blackadder the Third.” He also appeared in “Blackadder Goes Forth” and many future specials. From 2004 to 2012, Laurie starred as Dr. Gregory House on the Fox medical drama series “House.” He earned two Golden Globe Awards and many other accolades for the role. In the 2011 Guiness World Records, he was listed as the most-watched leading man on TV.

At the time, he was one of the highest-paid actors on television, earning $409,000 per episode of “House.” By the show’s end, Laurie was earning $700,000 an episode. His other television credits include appearing on the London-based “Friends” episode, the mini-series “The Night Manager,” and playing Senator Tom James in the HBO sitcom “Veep,” which earned him his tenth Emmy Award nomination. Laurie has also appeared in movies like “Peter’s Friends," “Sense and Sensibility," “101 Dalmatians," “Arthur Christmas,” and “The Personal History of David Copperfield.” Outside of acting, Laurie released the blues albums “Didn't It Rain" and "Let Them Talk". He also wrote a novel titled "The Gun Seller."

What religion is Hugh Laurie?

Laurie's parents attended St. Columba's Presbyterian Church in Oxford. He noted that believing in God didn't play a big role in his home, but "a certain attitude to life and the living of it did." In an interview on Bravo's "Inside the Actor's Studio," he said, "Pleasure was something that was treated with great suspicion; pleasure was something that, I was going to say it, had to be earned, but even the earning of it didn't really work. It was something to this day, I mean, I carry that with me. I find pleasure a difficult thing; I don't know what you do with it; I don't know where to put it."

In that same interview, Laurie said, “I'm not a religious man. Again, I think this is connected to my father. My father was religious, oddly enough, but I nonetheless, I suppose, was impressed by and enamored of his devotion to medical science. I find I am a fan of science. I believe in science."