Pingu (fanon biography)

Paul Neil George "Pingu" Winters OA MP*AC (born 6 July 1980), also known as Pingu Paul Winters, is an actor and television personality known for his eponymous show, Pingu.

Born in Zürich, Switzerland, he was raised in Whitby, England and auditioned for an acting role in an upcoming show. Pingu then began his career as a child actor by playing the lead role of the titular character in the television show of the same name, and went on to achieve massive success around the world. After his show ended, he went on to star in online projects, and began to do some voice acting work, while maintaining on-screen roles. He reprised his former role in Pingu in the City, a reboot based on the original series. He continues to be a cultural icon, being awarded the Order of Antarctica and the Order of the Merit of Penguins.

Early life
Winters was born on 6 July 1980 at the Balgrist University Hospital (German: Universitätsklinik Balgrist) in Zürich, Switzerland. The first of two children, his father, Paul Winters, is a British-American former musician who now works as a courier. His mother, Polly Margaret (née Mead) is a British actor who narrated in films in the early to mid-1980s. His paternal grandfather is a musician and a weight-lifter who participated in several competitions, later retiring in the 1960s. Winters was an active child growing up, often visiting his friends' houses and homes, and loved playing sports, most particularly ice hockey. He has been described as strong-willed by peers, but is often prone to misbehaving. He has been described as "almost the polar opposite of his younger sister Mary, who is quite shy and reserved."

Winters attended the Outdoors School for Excelling Penguins in Whitby, England, a mixed primary-secondary school, along with fellow pupils Attin Page, Terry Goldberg, Peter Reginald, and school sweetheart Gabby Pascal. He graduated in 2006.

Pingu: 1990-2006
Winters was inspired by frequenting movie theatres and plays as a child, due to his parents' leniency on television and video games. Although he was interested by theatre as a child, he was not particularly interested in acting; "I wanted to become a marine biologist, because I didn't consider acting to be a 'true profession'. As I grew up, I started to think more about acting, and I thought about it even more when I was in school." Learning from his experiences of watching other people and his home movies, he and his family took a holiday to Zürich, and auditioned for a supporting role as Hugo in an unnamed pilot. After a series of auditions, he found a letter from the acting company; the letter congratulated the family on being hired for the job. After Winters' parents read the letter to him, he became shocked and fainted from the news. The studio then began to record a pilot in 1986, which was not leaked until the 2010s. The role, which was previously tested on another actor 6 years earlier, was given to Winters, and the character was subsequently renamed in the process as "Pingu". He began to adopt the name for himself, even in real-life situations, and began introducing himself as Pingu Paul from then on. When asked whether it was "Pingu" or "Pingu Paul", he quipped, "generally Pingu, but in some situations I go by Pingu Paul instead. Either one of those two work."

Pingu's family began to buy a house near the studio in Russikon, and began to divide Pingu's time between school on weekdays and acting on weekends; his parents also set up a schedule for him, and he frequently moved between Whitby and Russikon. "I had a script that said something like 'you're talking to your friends about your sled'. This sort of improvisation gave me some freedom as to what I could say in grammelot, even by inserting a few English words here and there."

Soon after the first episode aired, the show made some revenue, and the company that produced it divided its equal worth amongst themselves and the family. In spite of the show's success, he kept the same schedule even until its final episode in 2006, stating that he "didn't want to fall into the trap of child actors" and "wanting to make sure [Pingu] was well behaved and not be a trainwreck of a person thereafter". After the show ended, the money largely came from re-tapings of the show, and were given some revenue from the distributors. Shortly thereafter, he retired from acting.

Intermediate period: 2006-2017
During this period, he became secluded from public life. continued to strengthen his contact with his closest friends. Pingu, with his family, moved to New York in 2012, and began living on a suburban neighborhood of Queens, New York.

Personal life and relationships
Shortly after being casted in 1986, Pingu and his family began to reside in Switzerland on a residence permit. He became adequate with the writers and producers, and his family approved of Pingu taking German and Italian studies with Swiss tutors while filming. After settling in Switzerland for four years, he and his family took a citizenship test in October of 1990. In January 1991, he and his family were granted Swiss passports.

Pingu's first real friend was Robby Brighton, who he met while fishing in a pond. They originally did not get along well, but after Brighton sustained some injuries after breaking his arm in an enclosure, they bonded together. Pingu still maintains this relationship to this very day, and Brighton has even joked about Pingu being his "boyfriend". Pingu first met Gabby Pascal during a school session, when she was a new student. Initially, they did not get along, as Pingu did not take kindly to her romantic feelings, but after taking shelter from accidentally destroying property, their relationship became more closer.

Pascal is currently expecting a child with Pingu. Pingu currently lives in Queens, New York City with his partner.

He initially did not get along with Terry Goldberg and Attin Page after they refused to share a ball during a game, until they hung out with each other more, and subsequently became friends shortly thereafter. Even after moving to New York City, they still get in contact with each other via e-mail and personalized video calls. Pingu first met fellow crew members Carmela Pendragon, Andrew Bettencourt, and Fred Anderson while working on the set of Pingu in the City, and became acquainted with each other afterwards. After the original series ended, Pingu retired from acting to work on his relationships until his show rebooted in 2017.

Personal interests
Pingu occasionally plays music with his friends and younger sister, often performing gigs at his home in New York City. He is an avid sportsperson, recently taking up association football while living in New York City; his favorite pastimes are curling and hockey.

Awards and honours
On 2015, the 25th anniversary of Pingu, he was awarded the Order of Antarctica and the Order of the Merit of Penguins by the Antarctic Council in the UK.

Other notes
This is a fanon biography of Pingu, and as such those details are to be taken with a grain of salt. For the official biography of Pingu, go here → Pingu (canon biography)