Paul de Leeuw

Paul Henri de Leeuw (born 26 March 1962) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor. De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part of these shows and much of its humour was essentially harmless, he came into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities who were often ridiculed. Many obscure musical acts were featured in his shows, many of which managed to gain national fame after they had been in De Leeuw's show (e.g. Twarres and René Klijn, a former boyband member who contracted HIV). VARA has since continued his shows apart from a few interruptions, often with considerable success. In the early nineties, De Leeuw also had some shows celebrating the new year. In the 1993-1994 show he satirized the new commercial television station RTL 5 by announcing another new station, "RTL 6" (RTL six, beter dan niks [lit. RTL six, better than nothing]). This led to a lawsuit by the RTL company, who demanded that De Leeuw withdraw his joke. He and his husband, Stephan Nugter, have adopted two children: son Kas (adopted in October 2001) and son Tobey (adopted in December 2002). De Leeuw has had many hit singles in the Netherlands. He is most famous for: Vlieg met me mee (#2), Ik wil niet dat je liegt / Waarheen, waarvoor (#1), and 'k Heb je lief (#3). Since the beginning of his television and singing career he released albums and singles, always becoming a big success. On Koninginnedag 2007 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.