Born and brought up in Bolton, Kay studied media performance at the University of Salford. He began working part-time as a stand-up comedian, winning the North West Comedian of the Year award. In 1997 he won Channel 4's "So You Think You're Funny" contest and the following year was nominated for a Perrier Award for his show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. With his public profile raised, in 2000 he co-wrote and starred in "That Peter Kay Thing" for Channel 4. This resulted in a spin-off sitcom, "Phoenix Nights", which ran for two series from 2001 to 2002, and in turn generated another spin-off, "Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere", in 2004. In 2005 he recorded a promotional video in which he mimed to Tony Christie's 1971 hit "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo", which was being reissued to raise money for Comic Relief; the song then reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming that year's best-selling single in the UK.