British-born Martin Lewis is a humorist, TV & radio personality, actor, columnist, writer and producer based in Hollywood.

A successful producer of films, TV, stage-shows and records with Monty Python, Peter Cook , Billy Connolly and Rowan Atkinson in his early career - in the past eleven years Lewis has become a noted comedic performer on American TV and radio in his own right. He frequently appears on TV as a host, commentator, contributor, correspondent, interviewer or comedic actor. He has also become a successful writer - with his work appearing in TV programs, books, magazines, websites such as Time.com - and his own one-man shows.

In addition to his frequent TV appearances on a wide range of American television networks - ranging from CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC and Court TV to HBO, Showtime, VH1 and E! - Lewis is also a popular choice as a host of live events including prestigious awards shows, film retrospectives, rock festivals and benefit shows. He also performs occasional seasons of his acclaimed, autobiographical one-man stage-show - GREAT EXPLOITATIONS!

Lewis' wryly-comedic show received its world premiere in January 1999 in Los Angeles as part of Solo '99 - The Second Annual Festival Of One-Person Shows. The show was both a critical and public success.

In the summer of 1999 Lewis was invited to give a short season of performances of the show as the inaugural event at the brand-new Steven Spielberg Theatre - the new auditorium within the American Cinematheque’s recently renovated Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre complex in Hollywood, California. This prestigious engagement attracted considerable media attention. Media reaction and reviews of the show are archived here.

In addition to his life and career as a humorist on TV, radio and stage - Lewis wears several other hats. In the last few years he has been very active as one of the creator-producer-hosts of an ongoing series of major film festivals and tributes presented in Los Angeles by The American Cinematheque.

(This is the highly-respected, non-profit organization which is dedicated to continuing the tradition of public exhibition of the world’s finest films. Lewis is a longtime member of the Board of Trustees of this organization - serving alongside such industry luminaries as Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, Mike Nichols, Billy Wilder, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn and Barry Diller.)

The festivals Lewis has co-created, produced and hosted have ranged from seasons honoring great comedic performers such as Monty Python, Peter Sellers, Peter Cook and Richard Pryor to retrospectives of respected film directors such as Ken Russell and Nicolas Roeg.

Lewis’ most recent film festivals have been the wildly-successful “Mods & Rockers!” celebrations of “Groovy Movies from the Shag-a-delic Sixties” which took place in Hollywood in the summers of 1999 and 2000. These festivals saluted the films which inspired the creation of Mike Myers’ Austin Powers character. Lewis’ involvement as co-creator-producer-host of these festivals stemmed from his passionate love and extensive knowledge of the pop culture of that era. As an expression of that affection he created and hosted a special MODS & ROCKERS! Website - in conjunction with the two festivals. Lewis has decided to maintain the Mods & Rockers website as a permanent tribute to the pop culture of the 1960’s. It provides an opportunity to discover more about the films and the decade which powers Austin Powers!

As if all the above activities aren’t sufficient to keep one person busy - Martin Lewis is also considered to be one of the world’s leading authorities on the Beatles. He is a frequent writer, broadcaster and public speaker on the topic of the Beatles. He also hosts the official Beatles fan celebrations - held annually in New York and Los Angeles. And he is in demand as a consultant on Beatles projects ranging from the “Anthology” albums to the reissue of the first Beatles film “A Hard Day’s Night.”

One of his ongoing Beatles-related projects is a major campaign to foster greater public appreciation for the Beatles' manager - the late Brian Epstein.

As part of that campaign the Martin Lewis Website is proud to be the creator and host of an associated site - the first (and only) website dedicated to Brian Epstein. The Brian Epstein site is named MBE! - for reasons that will become rapidly apparent!

With the 1999 world premiere of his autobiographical one-man show Great Exploitations! - Martin Lewis revealed that a throwaway prank he’d undertaken in 1971 as a very young music journalist had unwittingly created what has become one of the most enduring of Beatles myths. Striving to pad out an otherwise scholarly article he was writing for a British music paper about unreleased Beatles recordings, Lewis inserted the titles of four of his own endeavors as a teenage songwriter - as though they were genuine Beatle rarities!

Much to his surprise, over time those titles were erroneously incorporated into many authoritative histories of the band - and have assumed a mythological status. Lewis has now confessed that those four songs: Colliding Circles, Pink Litmus Paper Shirt, Deck Chair and Left Is Right (And Right Is Wrong) - hitherto regarded as part of the ‘Holy Grail’ of unissued Beatles music - were in fact atrociously-bad imitation Beatles songs he had composed in his bedroom at the age of 14! The New York Post stated that the confession had revealed “the biggest Beatles hoax since the ‘Paul is dead’ craze.” This website presents the full inside story of this magnificent (unplanned) Beatles hoax!

In the past eleven years Martin Lewis has become widely-known in America as a humorist, radio & TV host and personality, comedic actor, columnist, writer and producer. Details of his extensive activities in those fields are presented here. There are also extracts from his work.

Prior to becoming a comedic performer, Lewis had a very rich and varied career - primarily as a producer - including very distinguished work with comedic performers such as Monty Python, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly and Jennifer Saunders (of Absolutely Fabulous) - and with musicians such as Pete Townshend, Sting, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Jeff Beck, Bob Geldof, Donovan, George Michael and Paul McCartney. (There's an eclectic mixture of artists for you!) This work includes his many “Secret Policeman's Ball” productions of shows, movies and albums organized for the benefit of human-rights organization - Amnesty International.

This website presents details of those and other aspects of his earlier career and will continually add further materials from his vast archive. So fans of British comedy (especially the work of Monty Python, Peter Cook, The Rutles, Absolutely Fabulous and The Young Ones) and fans of British music (especially the work of Pete Townshend, Sting, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins and George Michael) will discover a plethora of fascinating facts and historical perspective.

Additionally there is coverage of the numerous Beatles-related projects he has undertaken as one of the world’s leading Beatles scholars and consultants.

Those interested in learning more about Martin Lewis are now advised to read his biography. Unfortunately he doesn’t have one. Never the type to do things by halves - he has three! Plus sixteen other ‘-ographies.’ Why? An excellent question. Best answered by... reading his biographies. Or at least one of them...

More Martin-ographies

Perform-ography	(TV, Film & Stage Appearances)
Write-ography	(TV, Film & Stage Writing)
Bibli-ography	(Literary Writing & Editing)
Film-ography	(TV and Film Producing & Directing)
Stage-ography	(Stage & Concert Producing)
Disc-ography	(Record Producing)
Artist-ography	(Artists Produced & Directed)
Interview-ography	(Personalities Interviewed)
Inspire-ography	(Martin's inspirations and influences)
Hoax-ography	(Martin's infamous Beatles hoax!)
Press-ography	(Reviews and articles about Martin)
Quote-ography	(Quotes about Martin)
Phot-ography	(Martin Lewis Photo Gallery)
Born-ography	(Martin's First Producers)