Robert Webb

Robert Patrick Webb (born 29 September 1972) is an English comedian, actor and writer.

He rose to prominence alongside David Mitchell as the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb.

Mitchell and Webb starred in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show, in which Webb plays Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne.

The two also starred in the sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look, for which they then performed a stage adaption, The Two Faces of Mitchell and Webb.

Robert Patrick Webb was born on 29 September 1972 in Boston, Lincolnshire, and grew up in Woodhall Spa.

His parents divorced when he was five years old, with his mother remarrying a year or so later.

He has two older brothers and a younger half-sister.

He grew up on a council estate, and was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Horncastle.

Having grown up watching the sitcoms The Young Ones, Blackadder, and Only Fools and Horses, he became interested in drama and poetry while in school, and began writing parodies.

At the age of 13, partly because of resentment towards his father, he made a conscious effort to lose his native Lincolnshire accent and now speaks with a more neutral English accent.

When he was 17 and in the lower sixth form preparing for his A-levels, his mother died of breast cancer, and he moved in with his father and re-sat his A-levels.

In 1992, Webb attended Robinson College, Cambridge, where he studied English and became vice-president of the Footlights, where he met David Mitchell.

The two met at an audition for a Footlights production of Cinderella in 1993.

The two put together their first project, a show about World War I titled Innocent Millions Dead or Dying – A Wry Look at the Post-Apocalyptic Age (With Songs), in January 1995.

Webb later described it as being "fucking terrible".

From this the duo were given the chance to write for Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, and for series two of Big Train.

After minor work on The Jack Docherty Show and Comedy Nation, their first break into television acting was in 2000, on the short-lived BBC sketch show Bruiser, which they primarily wrote, and starred in.

In 2001, the duo were commissioned for a sketch show of their own, entitled The Mitchell and Webb Situation, which ran for six episodes on the now defunct channel Play UK.

Mitchell and Webb's next project came in 2003, with starring roles in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show, as flatmates Mark Corrigan and Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne respectively.

Towards the end of 2006 the pair made their first tour, with a show called The Two Faces of Mitchell and Webb.

The tour was criticised as just "a succession of largely unrelated scenes" by The Guardian's Brian Logan, who gave it a rating of two stars.

It was nominated for two British Comedy awards in 2006: "Britain's Best New TV Comedy" and the "Highland Spring People's Choice".

Their stage tour The Two Faces of Mitchell and Webb was nominated for the British Comedy Award for "Best Stage Comedy", and That Mitchell and Webb Sound won a Sony Silver Award.

The duo starred in the 2007 film Magicians, and in the short-lived series Ambassadors in 2013.

Webb headed the critically-acclaimed sitcom The Smoking Room and was a performer in the sketch show Bruiser.

The pair shared the 2007 Royal Television Society Award for "Comedy Performance", and were jointly nominated for Best Television Comedy Actor at the 2006 British Comedy Awards.

That Mitchell and Webb Look won them the BAFTA for "Best Comedy Programme or Series" at the 2007 awards, and they earned a further nomination for it in 2009.

Their first film, Magicians, was released on 18 May 2007.

It was directed by Andrew O'Connor and written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain.

Webb played the role of modern magician Karl.

They filmed Playing Shop, a comedy television pilot for BBC2 about two men who operate a business out of their shed, which they also wrote.

Although the BBC were happy with it, Mitchell and Webb scrapped it themselves, as they felt it was too similar to Peep Show.

A new pilot had been commissioned, but the plan was later shelved.

Webb was nominated for the Best Television Comedy Actor award again, this time without Mitchell, in 2009.

Peep Show ran for nine series, making it the longest-running sitcom in Channel 4 history.

After the success of Peep Show, Mitchell and Webb returned to sketch comedy with their BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound, which ran for five series.

The show was adapted for television and became That Mitchell and Webb Look; producer Gareth Edwards described it as "the shortest pitch (he had) ever written".

Since 2017, he has starred alongside Mitchell in the Channel 4 comedy-drama Back.

Webb is also a regular comedy panellist, appearing on shows such as The Bubble, Have I Got News for You, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI, Mastermind, Argumental, and Was It Something I Said? He has also hosted and narrated several programmes.

His other sitcom appearances include Blessed, The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, and Fresh Meat.