Jim Dale, who plays the Narrator in "Pushing Daisies," became "The Toast of Broadway" (The New York Times) when he created the flamboyant title role in the now world-famous Cy Coleman musical "Barnum," winning a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. He started training for his career at the age of 9. For six years, he studied tap dancing, judo, national dancing, ballet and tumbling. During those years, he performed in many amateur shows and started to include comedy in his act. At the age of 17, he became the youngest professional comedian in Great Britain, touring all the famous Variety Music Halls. He joined the Royal Air Force at 18 and spent the next two years entertaining troops in England and Germany. At 22, he became the first recording artist under the wing of the now-legendary Sir George Martin, who produced many hit records for him over the next two years. Dale appeared in and hosted the top pop music show on BBC television, "Six-Five Special." He was invited to join BBC radio as a disc jockey, and hosted their number-one program for children, "Saturday Morning Children's Requests," for over a year. In 1966 he was asked to play the clown Autolycus in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" at the Edinburgh Festival. The next year he played Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and the title role in "Scapino." In 1970, at the request of Laurence Olivier, he joined The British National Theatre as a leading actor. Over the following two years, he appeared in "Love's Labours Lost," "The Merchant of Venice," "The National Health," "The Good Natured Man," "Sancho," "The Captain of Kopenick" and a two-hander play with Anthony Hopkins, "The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria." At the Young Vic, he re-created the title role of "Scapino," which he co-adapted with Frank Dunlop, and played Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew." His other West End theatre credits include "The Burglar," "The Wayward Way," "The Card," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Merchant of Venice," "A Winter's Tale" and, recently, the part of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's "Oliver!" at the London Palladium. In 1973, Dale made his Broadway debut in the smash hit "Scapino," winning a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award, along with receiving a Tony Award nomination. On television, Dale has appeared in "Huckleberry Finn," "The American Clock," "The Bill Cosby Show," "The Ellen Burstyn Show," "The Dinah Shore Show," "Sunday Night at the London Palladium," "Six-Five Special," "Thank Your Lucky Stars," "Meet Jim Dale" and "The Jim Dale Show." In films, he can be seen in "The National Health," "Joseph Andrews," "The Spaceman and King Arthur," "Hot Lead and Cold Feet," "Pete's Dragon," "Adolf Hitler - My Part in His Downfall," "Lock Up Your Daughters," "Scandalous," "The Winter's Tale," "Digby," "The Hunchback" and 11 films in the British "Carry On" series. Dale received an Academy AwardŽ nomination for writing the lyrics to "Georgy Girl" and has written songs for such films as "Shalako," "A Winter's Tale," "Twinky" and "Joseph Andrews." He recorded the audiobooks for all of the Harry Potter books, among many others.