Rob Brydon

Robert Brydon Jones (born 3 May 1965) is a Welsh actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter, singer and writer.

Brydon gained prominence for his roles in film, television and radio.

Brydon was born on 3 May 1965 in Baglan, Glamorgan.

His mother, Joy Jones (née Brydon), was a school teacher, and his father, Howard Jones, was a car dealer.

He grew up in Baglan, with his younger brother Peter (born 1973).

Brydon was educated at two private schools: St. John's School in Porthcawl, which Eddie Izzard also attended, and Dumbarton House School in Swansea until the age of 14.

This was followed by Porthcawl Comprehensive School, where he met Ruth Jones (with whom he later worked in Gavin & Stacey) and became a member of the school's youth theatre group.

While at Dumbarton, he once stole the lunch money of fellow pupil Catherine Zeta-Jones (which he admitted while participating in a series 4 episode of Would I Lie To You?).

Brydon has said that his primary childhood influences in comedy were Barry Humphries, Frankie Howerd and Woody Allen.

He has also said that he used to memorise entire sketches by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Peter Sellers.

Brydon attended the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff.

He left after a year, to join Radio Wales at the age of 20.

His early broadcasts included work as a disc jockey on BBC Radio Wales, when his Saturday morning shows included contributions from stand-up comedian Pete Park-Walker.

For a brief period in the early 1990s Brydon was a presenter for the Home Shopping Network.

He began to find small roles in several successful films and television series.

Brydon was first known nationally as a voice artist.

He provided several voices for the Discworld computer games, radio & television programmes like Eurotrash and continuity announcements for BBC 1.

He is also known for voice-over work in television advertising, including for Renault, Tango, The Times, Tesco, Abbey National, Sainsbury's, McDonald's, Pot Noodle, Domino's Pizza, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, The Observer and Fairy Liquid.

He voiced the main character, Lewton, in the Discworld computer game Discworld Noir, and provided voices in animated films such as The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child and Room on the Broom.

Between 1992 and 1994, on Radio Wales (where he stayed for six years) he was the main presenter of Rave, one of BBC Radio 5's youth magazine and music programmes, with Alan Thompson.

He developed his Marion and Geoff story from this.

In 1994 and 1995 Brydon appeared in numerous episodes of the original Radio Wales version of the cult comedy Satellite City with Boyd Clack.

Although he has stayed with radio as a comedy performer on BBC Radio Five Live's The Treatment, Brydon also does occasional stints as a stand-in presenter on BBC Radio 2 including for Ken Bruce before Bruce resigned from the BBC in 2023.

Brydon gained fame for his roles in the black comedy series Human Remains (2000), the mockumentary series Marion and Geoff (2000–2003), the chat show spoof The Keith Barret Show (2004–2005), and the comedy series Supernova (2005–2006).

In 2000 he made his mark in television comedy, with two series which he co-wrote and performed for the BBC: Human Remains, co-written by Julia Davis.

From 2000 to 2003 he starred in the BBC television mockumentary Marion and Geoff which was commercially successful.

Brydon plays as Keith Barret, a naïve taxi driver going through a messy divorce from his wife, Marion, who, though he fails to realise it, has had a long-standing affair with her colleague, Geoff.

Each episode is presented as a monologue, filmed by a fixed camera in the confines of his car.

He has acted in a number of shows for the BBC with Steve Coogan starting with 24 Hour Party People (2002) and A Cock and Bull Story (2005).

From 2004 to 2005 Brydon starred in The Keith Barret Show which was a fictional spoof of a BBC chat show.

In 2006 he parodied comedy panel shows such as QI, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You in the BBC Three series Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive.

From 2007 to 2010 he played Bryn West in the BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Comedy Performance.

Since 2009, Brydon has presented the BBC One comedy panel show Would I Lie to You? after previously playing himself as host of a fictional panel show in Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, which ran on BBC Three from 2006 until 2007.

Brydon and Coogan then starred in The Trip (2010) followed by The Trip to Italy (2014), The Trip to Spain (2017), and The Trip to Greece (2020).

Notably on 1 April 2011, Brydon appeared during Bruce's absence, as him, as an April Fools' Day joke, for the entire show.

During an episode of Would I Lie To You?, Brydon admitted that he had pretended on the phone to be his own agent, using one of his repertoire of different voices in the early part of his career.

This was done to justify enhancing his freelance work fees.

Brydon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in Queen Elizabeth II's Birthday Honours in 2013 for services to comedy and broadcasting, and for charitable services.

In addition to presenting his own late-night chat show, The Rob Brydon Show, for two years and hosting the 2014 Saturday-night game show The Guess List for BBC One.

He has also acted in the films Cinderella (2015), The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016), Holmes & Watson (2019) and Barbie (2023).