Comedy - Comedi

Rob Brydon - Live 2008

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Comedic actor and impersonator, Rob Brydon, was born in Swansea, Wales in 1965 and was raised in Baglan near Port Talbot, before moving to Porthcawl. It was at the Porthcawl Comprehensive School that Rob's interest in acting was sparked under the direction of drama teacher Roger Burnel. Rob briefly studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, but left midway through to become a DJ on BBC Radio Wales.

Rob spent the next six years doing local radio and television work with the BBC. Early success came while hosting a show with Alan Thompson on which Rob created and performed various comedic pieces. One of the collaborations led to the beginnings of the character Keith Barret of Marion and Geoff and The Keith Barret Show.

Rob left Cardiff and headed for London where he worked as a voice artist for various animations and numerous television advertising campaigns, including those for Renault, Tango, Tesco, McDonald's, Toilet Duck and The Observer. Rob continued to do voice-over work until he landed a role as the traffic warden in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. This movie role drove Rob to make a short film called Rob Brydon- An Extremely Unlucky Traffic Warden in which Rob featured a few of his comic characters, including Keith Barret. Shortly thereafter, Rob was introduced to comic writer and performer, Steve Coogan, who encouraged Rob to develop the Keith character through his production company.

In 2000, Rob, with the help of writer Hugo Blick, developed six, ten-minute episodes of Marion and Geoff through Coogan's company, Baby Cow Productions. The show featured taxi driver Keith Barret who records the story of his failed marriage on a dashboard camera after his wife leaves him for her co-worker, Geoff. The show earned critical acclaim and garnered many awards, including a Best Television Comedy Newcomer award for Rob at both the British Comedy Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards. The show ran 16 episodes between 2000 and 2003.

Shortly after the beginnings of Marion and Geoff, Rob began work on the award winning Human Remains, a short comedy in which he starred alongside Julia Davis whom he met while at the BBC when Rob joined the Bath based improvisational comedy group ‘More Fool Us'. The two played the roles of various couples that are caught in dysfunctional and strange relationships. The show won a Best International Comedy award at the 2001 Banff TV Festival and Rob landed a Best Actor award at the 2001 British Comedy Awards for his performance.

In 2003, Rob went on a tour doing a one-man show called Making Divorce Work, in which he took Keith Barret out of his taxi cab and onto the stage. The sell-out nationwide tour spun into a self help book of the same name, and in February 2004, Keith Barret got his own chat show titled The Keith Barret Show. Rob played Keith and he interviewed celebrity couples to find the secrets of a successful marriage. In May 2005, Rob took The Keith Barret Show on a 60-date national tour. The Sunday Express said that Rob "...inhabits the character so fully he could be a cult-in-the-making," and the Big Issue called it a "brutally honest and painfully funny full-length show."

Rob began work on Director's Commentary in 2004, a spoof comedy show in which he plays the role of Peter De Lane, a director of TV shows who shares behind-the-scenes stories on the actors he works with and his personal life.

Rob and Coogan have collaborated on many occasions. They co-starred in the BBC TV film Cruise of the Gods, and they appeared together in 24 Hour Party People, and more recently, A Cock and Bull Story; two films from director Michael Winterbottom. A Cock and Bull Story is a comedic account of what it's like trying to make a film when the two lead actors both want attention, and the movie received four stars from Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Recently, Rob appeared on five episodes of Little Britain as Roman de Vere, and starred as Dr. Paul Hamilton in Supernova, a TV series about a British astronomer who leaves London when he is offered a new job and a chance to start a new life while working at the Royal Australian Observatory; however, there is a lot of adjustments to be made for Dr. Hamilton, including learning how to deal with his new co-workers.

Rob also stars as the host of Annually Retentive, a history panel game show that illustrates what happens when the cameras aren't filming. The first series was a critical success when it debuted in the Autumn of 2006 and was followed up by another highly acclaimed series in the summer of 2007.

In November 2007 Rob starred in the BBC1 flagship drama series Heroes and Villains: Napoleon, as the People's Representative Stanislav Freron. The show also co-starred Tom Burke, Kenneth Cranham and Gina Bellman.

Rob has also gained a loyal following through his role in the smash hit Gavin and Stacey as Uncle Bryn.

Most recently Rob put together a one-off documentary for BBC 4 entitled Rob Brydon's Identity Crisis. This saw Rob re-trace his roots and explore the nature of being Welsh; through a series of three secret comedy performances Rob attempted to tap into the Welsh psyche.

£17.50