10 Celebrities You Didn't Realise Are Massive Gamers

8. Simon Pegg

Shaun Of The Dead Nick Frost Simon Pegg
Universal Pictures

Simon Pegg knows full well how strange it's been for nerd culture to transform from this semi-shameful thing that scored you absolutely zero social points to being premiere cultural currency, but thankfully his love for gaming as a medium has never faltered.

His earlier collaborations with director Edgar Wright wore the pair's collective passion for gaming on their sleeves, with episodes of TV series Spaced prominently featuring Pegg's character, Tim, playing Tomb Raider. Hell, there's even an entire episode where the premise is that Tim is losing his mind because he stayed up all night playing Resident Evil 2 and taking speed.

This motif showed up again in Shaun of the Dead, with slackers Ed and Shaun both shown to love nothing more than vegging out on the couch and playing TimeSplitters 2.

Though the direct references end here, unlike his directing partner Wright (who swore off video games because he spent too much time playing them rather than working), Pegg continues to play new titles, but for more wholesome reasons. Back in 2018, he cited online games like Minecraft as being a great way to keep in contact with his daughter when they're separated because of his work.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.