Patrick Kielty was born on 31 January 1971, He was born in Dundrum, County Down, Northern Ireland. Patrick's career started while he was at Queen's University of Belfast. He become well known locally for his stand-up comedy routines at The Empire pub comedy nights (branded as The Empire Laughs Back). One of his regular routines involved donning a balaclava and making spoof paramilitary pronouncements. The Troubles in Northern Ireland affected him more personally than most. His father, businessman Jack Kielty, was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries, although he had no ties to any republican militant group. In 1993 Patrick Kielty presented the show SUS on UTV. He later became the warm-up act for a BBC Northern Ireland programme Anderson on the Box presented by local personality Gerry Anderson. When this show was axed, he presented its replacement, PK Tonight. Although this ran for only a year and was only shown in Northern Ireland, it did attract the attention of London-based broadcasters and he graduated to presenting programmes such as Last Chance Lottery and Patrick Kielty Almost Live which were shown throughout the UK. He did an impersonation of Martin McGuinness singing the Simon and Garfunkel song, "Bridge over Troubled Water". Kielty formerly dated Amanda Byram, who has worked for the Irish TV channel TV3 and Channel 4 in the UK. He joked that due to the fact that she was from the Republic of Ireland their relationship received cross-border funding. He continues to appear on national television, although he has left much of his political comedy background behind, tending to favour light-entertainment shows such as the BBCs Fame Academy and Love Island for ITV in both 2005 and 2006. Also in 2006, Kielty hosted a segment on ITV's coverage of The Prince's Trust 30th Birthday LIVE, along side Kate Thornton, as well as covering a 60 date sell out tour covering the UK.
