Simon Pegg's 10 Best Roles

A wretched hive of surprising filmography.

The World's End Simon Pegg
Universal Pictures

Ah, Simon Pegg. A self stylised and self-proclaimed geek, this once obscure British actor has risen to become a recognisable face the world over.

Formally enthroned as King of Nerds after appearing in both Star Trek AND Star Wars, Simon Pegg has had a wide and varied career.

From the Mission Impossible franchise he joked about joining in 2004 (and subsequently joined in 2006) to the acclaimed Cornetto Trilogy he co-wrote with Edgar Wright, Pegg has popped up in a plethora of unpredictable places.

He’s not just a pretty face either; his work as a voice actor has picked up speed recently, with a cameo in the animated Clone Wars series and a key part in Boxtrolls - the 2014 animated fantasy movie. This last one certainly rounded out his credentials for being part of virtually every corner of geek entertainment.

With his latest role in the recently-released comedy horror series Truth Seekers, co-written with his longstanding hetero-life-partner Nick Frost, Pegg has yet again found another way of sailing the turbulent seas of geeky entertainment.

As his list of performances and cameos grows ever longer, it does us well to remember the true breadth of his filmography. From cult classic TV to region-topping blockbusters, Simon Pegg’s acting history is as diverse as it is impressive.

10. Sergeant Nicholas Angel - Hot Fuzz

The World's End Simon Pegg
Universal Pictures

As the straitlaced leading man of Edgar Wright's killer cop comedy, Simon Pegg is at his very best in Hot Fuzz.

Nicholas Angel is the quintessential Pegg performance, a fantastically well acted character with a flawless sense of unintentional comedy timing. In his role as the recently promoted and forcibly relocated police Sergeant of the sleepy village of Sandford, he uncovers a decades-old conspiracy of murder and organised beautification, and resolves to put a stop to it.

Between police corruption, widespread incompetence and his own inability to be a human being, Sgt. Angel and his overawed partner Constable Butterman thwart the machinations of the N.W.A (Neighbourhood Watch Alliance) and bring justice back to Sandford. Pegg and Frost have a wonderful dynamic in this film, each character building off the other and in general being even more adorable than usual.

With an iconic approach to action that turns a supermarket into a warzone the pair tear through the town in a rampage of film-inspired carnage, and all without a single fatality from the side of law and order.

He even manages to get the swan.

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My passion for all things Sci Fi goes back to my earliest days, when old VHS copies of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet gripped my tiny mind with their big, noisy vehicles and terrifying puppets. I'd like to say my taste got more refined over the years, but between the Warhammer, Space Dandy and niche Star Wars EU books, perhaps it just got broader. I've enjoyed games of all calibre since I figured out that dice weren't just for eating, and have written prose ever since I was left unsupervised with some crayons next to a white wall. I got away with it by calling it "schoolwork" for as long as I could, and university helped me keep the charade going a while longer. Since my work began to get published, it's made all those long hours repainting the walls seem worth it.