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Dara Ó Briain | |
|---|---|
 Ó Briain at the 2011 BAFTA awards | |
| Born | (1972-02-04)4 February 1972 (age 53) Bray, Ireland |
| Education | University College Dublin (BSc) |
| Notable work | Echo Island Don't Feed The Gondolas (1998–2000) The Panel (2003–2006) Mock the Week (2005–2022) Turn Back Time (2006) The Apprentice: You're Fired! (2010–2014) Stargazing Live (2011–2017) School of Hard Sums (2012–2014) Dara Ó Briain's Science Club (2012–2013) Dara & Ed's Big Adventure (2015) Robot Wars (2016–2018) Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit (2016–2018) Blockbusters (2019) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Comedy career | |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Medium | Stand-up, television |
| Genre | Observational comedy |
| Website | Official website |
Dara Ó Briain (/ˈdɑːrəoʊˈbriːən,ˈdærə-/DAR(R)-ə ohBREE-ən,Irish:[ˈd̪ˠaɾˠəoːˈbʲɾʲiənʲ]; born 4 February 1972)[1] is an Irish comedian and television presenter based in theUnited Kingdom.[2][3][4][5] He is noted for performing stand-up comedy shows all over the world and for hosting topical panel shows such asMock the Week,The Panel, andThe Apprentice: You're Fired!. In 2009, theIrish Independent described Ó Briain as "Terry Wogan's heir apparent as Britain's 'favourite Irishman'".[6]
In 2012, he was nominated for aBAFTA TV Award for Best Entertainment Performance for his work onMock the Week. He has also been a newspaper columnist and written books for both adults and children. His first children's book,Beyond the Sky, was nominated for aBlue Peter Book Award in 2017.
Ó Briain was born in 1972 inBray, County Wicklow,[7] andadopted into what he described as "a stable home" where he enjoyed a happy childhood with his "supportive" parents.[8] He attendedColáiste Eoin secondary school, aGaelcholáiste (Irish-speaking medium school) onDublin's southside. He attendedUniversity College Dublin (UCD), where he studiedmathematics andtheoretical physics. In 2008, he remarked: "I haven't written it into my act, but it occasionally comes through. I could come on with a chalkboard and say: 'Now you're all going to pay attention.'"[9]
While a student at UCD, he was both the auditor (chairperson) of theLiterary and Historical Society (the university's oldestdebating society) and the co-founder and co-editor ofThe University Observer college newspaper. In 1994, he won theIrish Times National Debating Championship andThe Irish Times/Gael Linn National Irish language debating championship; he is a fluentIrish speaker, and speaks to his father only in that language.[10]
He played bothGaelic football andhurling forBray Emmets[11] and hurling for theWicklow County minor team.[12]
After graduating in 1994, Ó Briain began working atRTÉ as a children's TV presenter. At this time, he also began performing his first stand-up gigs on the Irish comedy circuit.[13] He admitted, "I did the trip fromDublin toDonegal to play to six people; then I turned round and drove home again. I did about three or four years playing to a lot of bad rooms, but learning as I went. It's not bad when someone gives you £40 for standing up and telling jokes. I remember thinking: 'This is the life.'"[9] Ó Briain spent three years as a presenter on the bilingual (Irish and English) children's programmeEcho Island but came to prominence as a team captain on the topical panel showDon't Feed the Gondolas (1998–2000) hosted bySeán Moncrieff. Ó Briain also hosted RTÉ family entertainment gameshowIt's a Family Affair.[14]
Ó Briain's stand up international career took off around this time as he began to tour heavily, performing acrossEurope,Asia,Australia andNorth America, with gigs inDubai,Paris,Adelaide,Shanghai andNew York City. He was a regular at theKilkenny Cat Laughs and theEdinburgh Festival Fringe, as well as making one notable appearance at theJust For Laughs festival inMontreal in 2002, where he was offered a prestigious gala show because of his performances at the Irish showcase. Around this time, Ó Briain presented the weekend game showIt's a Family Affair onRTÉ Television. It was the first time he worked with former Channel 4commissioning editor Séamus Cassidy. They later set up the production company Happy Endings Productions, and together they produced (and Ó Briain presented) the chat showBuried Alive (2003) and most famously in IrelandThe Panel (2003–2006).
In 2005, Ó Briain's eighth show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the biggest-selling solo comedy show of the festival.[15]
In early 2006, Ó Briain conducted his third tour of theUnited Kingdom andIreland. This included shows at theTheatre Royal, inLondon as well as nine nights inDublin atVicar Street. His second night in theTheatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London was recorded for his first live DVD. His fourth multinational tour followed in late 2007, which as he says in his routine has "no title" but was almost entitled "You Had to Be There".
He performed new tours across the UK and Ireland in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2018. His 2010 tour played for 150 dates, to over 225,000 people, including 37 nights in Vicar St. in Dublin, nine nights at theHammersmith Apollo in London and a first date inDubai. Each of those three tours were recorded for DVD, and the 2012 tour, entitled 'Craic Dealer', was similarly recorded during his shows at theEdinburgh Playhouse in May 2012. "Craic Dealer" ran for over 150 shows, as did his 2015 tour "Crowd Tickler", this time with dates in Scandinavia, Northern Europe and Australia added to the tour. The tour was recorded for a DVD release.
On 12 March 2011, Ó Briain,Jack Whitehall andJon Richardson set a newGuinness World Records title for hosting the 'highest stand-up comedy gig in the world', on aBritish Airways flight in support ofComic Relief.[16][17]
In 2011, Ó Briain took part in two shows of the 16-dateUncaged Monkeys tour withProfessor Brian Cox,Robin Ince,Ben Goldacre,Simon Singh andChris Addison.
In October 2017, he started touring his show "Voice of Reason". As well as another 37 nights in Vicar St Theatre in Dublin (to bring his total there to 197 shows), "Voice of Reason" was performed more than 175 times, in 20 countries, including debut shows inReykjavík,Saint Petersburg,Malta, Germany and New Zealand. It was recorded as a BBC special at the Hammersmith Apollo, for broadcast in 2019. He had originally planned to perform the show on debut tours to the United States and Canada in 2020, but this was postponed after the first four US dates, in early March, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canadian part of the tour resumed in August 2021.[18]
In September 2021, he announced a new show, named "So... Where Were We?", with a tour starting in November 2021.[19] Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a portion of the tour in Ireland that was originally planned for January 2022 was pushed back to March through June 2022.[20]He has been touring since and extended the tour.[21]
In February 2025, Ó Briain started hisRe:CreationUK andIreland tour.[22]
The Panel was hosted by Ó Briain. Three times nominated for the Best Entertainment showIFTA (Irish Film and Television Awards), the show has a rotating cast of panellists, usually drawn from the world of Irish comedy, discussing the events of the week and interviewing guests. The most regular panellists have beenColin Murphy,Ed Byrne,Neil Delamere,Andrew Maxwell andMairéad Farrell.
Around 2002, with his profile rising in the UK due to his one-man shows at theEdinburgh Festival Fringe, Ó Briain began making appearances on UK television shows such asBring Me the Head of Light Entertainment (aChannel 5 production) andNever Mind the Buzzcocks. In early 2003, he hosted the second series ofBBC Scotland'sLive Floor Show.[23] His big break in UK television came in 2003, when he appeared as a guest panellist on news quiz,Have I Got News for You, subsequently making several appearances as guest host of the show.[24]
In 2003, Ó Briain was nominated at theChortle Comedy Awards for Live Comedy in the categories Best Compère and Best Headline Act (which he would go on to win). In 2004, he won the Best Headliner award again, as well as being nominated for Best Full-length Show. From 2005 to 2022, he was the host of the comedy panel showMock the Week onBBC Two, a blend betweenHave I Got News for You andWhose Line Is It Anyway? The show reached its 200th episode during its 19th series in 2019.
On 14 September 2005, Ó Briain appeared as a guest onRoom 101, where he got rid of children's television presenters (following his work as a presenter onEcho Island) and once-in-a-lifetime experiences (he was given a once-in-a-lifetime experience on the show by being the second guest to pull the lever that opens the chute to Room 101 – the first had been former host Nick Hancock). He also got rid of banter,Gillian McKeith and magicians.[25]
Between 2006 and 2011, Ó Briain starred in the BBC'sThree Men in a Boat series, withGriff Rhys Jones andRory McGrath. The series included the trio rowing theRiver Thames, as in the 1889 novel of the same name, sailing from London to theIsle of Wight for a sail boat race, borrowing numerousvessels to make their way fromPlymouth to theIsles of Scilly. In 2009, the three took to the Irish canals and rivers on a trip fromDublin toLimerick. In 2010, they explored the Isles of Scotland. In 2011, two more series were made; one travelling from Montenegro to Venice, the other travelling down the New England coast in the US to New York.
Ó Briain has also been an extensive newspaper columnist, with pieces published in many national papers in both the UK and Ireland, fromThe Sunday Times toThe Daily Telegraph. On 9 August 2006 he hosted the first edition of his chat showTurn Back Time,[13] which only ran for one series.
He is a relatively frequent panellist onQI and wrote about Ireland in theQI series E annual. He also occasionally appears onJust a Minute onBBC Radio 4.[citation needed]
He also holds the record for greatest number of appearances on the BBC stand-up showcaseLive at the Apollo, where he appeared seven times.[citation needed]
On 1 October 2009, Ó Briain released his first book entitledTickling the English, about what he considers it means to be English. As part of its promotion, he has stated that he is enthusiastic aboutEnglish culture and a student ofEnglish history, his favourite events being theGin Craze and thecivil war.[26] In a review ofTickling the English, Ó Briain was described asSir Terry Wogan'sheir apparent as Britain's "favourite Irishman".[6]
Ó Briain has appeared several times in theBBC Radio science / comedy showThe Infinite Monkey Cage which premiered on 30 November 2009 onRadio 4.[27]
Since October 2024, Ó Briain has co-presentedCurious Cases, a science programme onRadio 4 withHannah Fry.
In 2010, Ó Briain replacedAdrian Chiles as the presenter ofThe Apprentice: You're Fired!. After five years, he quit following the 2014 series.[28]
Ó Briain has hosted theBritish Academy Video Games Awards 9 times between 2009 and 2019, including 2012, when highlights were also shown onChallenge.[29][30]In 2012 he hosted the Bafta Television awards, the same year he was nominated for a Best Entertainment Performance Award.
From 3 to 5 January 2011, Ó Briain andBrian Cox presentedStargazing Live onBBC Two, three programmes based at theJodrell Bank Observatory, scheduled to coincide with theconjunction of Jupiter and Uranus, apartial solar eclipse, and theQuadrantid meteor shower.[31] The two presenters hosted a second series of three-hour-long programmes, plus follow-up 30-minute shows calledStargazing Live: Back to Earth, from 16 to 18 January 2012. From 8 to 10 January 2013, they presented the third series, again accompanied byBack to Earth.[32]
Stargazing Live has continued to run intermittently throughout the decade, including live coverage of the Partial solar eclipse over the UK in 2015, Astronaut Tim Peake's journey to the ISS in 2016, and a 50th anniversary celebration of the Apollo missions in 2019.Stargazing Live was nominated for a Bafta for Best Live Television Event in 2017.
From 16 April 2012, Ó Briain presented an eight-episode series ofSchool of Hard Sums with co-hostMarcus du Sautoy onDave. Each episode was themed and Ó Briain along with a guest attempted to solve various conundrums posted by du Sautoy. Series 2 began on 1 May 2013. On 6 November 2012, Ó Briain began presenting a series calledDara Ó Briain's Science Club, in which he and other celebrities discuss science issues. The first edition of this programme featuresEd Byrne talking about how closely related he is to theNeanderthals. Each episode in the series includes a short animated history that has been created by the UK animation and illustration agency12Foot6.[33]
In 2013, Ó Briain joinedJack Dee,Chelsee Healey,Greg James,Melanie C andPhilips Idowu inThrough Hell and High Water, aComic Relief challenge which involved celebrities canoeing the most difficult rapids of theZambezi River. They raised over £1 million for the charity.
Dara and Ed's Great Big Adventure, a 2015 three-partfly-on-the-wall television series, followed Ó Briain and Ed Byrne on their journey by car down thePan-American Highway.[34]
In June 2015,Dara Ó Briain Meets Stephen Hawking, in which Ó Briain travels to Cambridge for a series of interviews with theoretical physicistStephen Hawking, aired on BBC One.
From January to March 2016, Ó Briain presentedTomorrow's Food, a three-episode series alongsideAngela Hartnett,Chris Bavin and Dr Shini Somara. TheBBC One show looked at the technologies and produce in farms, supermarkets, kitchens and restaurants around the world.[35]
In 2016, Ó Briain began hosting a panel show about video games calledDara O Briain's Go 8 Bit.[36]
Ó Briain presented the 2016 reboot ofRobot Wars starting on 24 July, as well as the subsequent two series in 2017.
He hosted a revival of the classic quiz showBlockbusters, which began airing onComedy Central on 21 March 2019 until 5 December 2019.
In 2019, Ó Briain appeared as a guest onHypothetical.
In June 2019, he was the host ofThe Family Brain Games. He co-hosted this with Hannah Critchlow, who was responsible for the psychological analysis and supported by Adam Hampshire.[37] This programme was won by the Smith Family of Newmilns, Ayrshire.[38]
Ó Briain also presents C4 quiz showOne & Six Zeros.[39]
On 23 June 2022, Ó Briain was confirmed to star as a contestant in series 14 of C4 comedy game showTaskmaster. He won the second episode of the series with 30 points, becoming the first person in the show's history to win the maximum possible number of points on offer in a single episode, and later went on to win the series with the highest-ever total score (later eclipsed byJohn Robins in series 17). In 2024 he returned to compete in the thirdTaskmaster: Champion of Champions special, againstSarah Kendall,Morgana Robinson,Sophie Duker andKiell Smith-Bynoe (who was substituting in for Series 15 championMae Martin). Once again Ó Briain was victorious.
In August 2023, Ó Briain presentedWonders of the Moon with Dara Ó Briain; a two-part series that aired onChannel 5.[40]
In May 2024, Ó Briain presented a two-part series onChannel 5 calledMysteries of the Pyramids with Dara O Briain.[41]
In July 2024,Wonders of the Sun with Dara Ó Briain; a two-part series presented by Ó Briain aired onChannel 5.[42]
In April 2025, Ó Briain presentedVolcano with Dara O Briain, a two-part series onChannel 5.[43]
Ó Briain had a cameo role as a generalisedalternative comedian in the 2013 British filmThe Look of Love directed byMichael Winterbottom.
Ó Briain married his wife Susan, a surgeon, in 2006;[44] they live in West London with their three children, one daughter (born 2008) and two sons (born 2011 and 2015).[45] He was best man at his best friendEd Byrne's wedding in 2008 after Byrne had previously been Ó Briain's best man.[46] He describes himself as looking like "one ofTony Soprano's henchmen, on a bad day", and said that in 2008, "living in London I probably only get recognised about once a day. And that's okay by me. I'm not a celebrity. And I certainly don't see myself as one".[47]
Ó Briain is anatheist, but has said that he also sees himself as "ethnically Catholic": "I'm staunchly atheist, I simply don't believe in God, even if he believes in me. But I'm still Catholic, of course. Catholicism has a much broader reach than just the religion. I'm technically Catholic, it's the box you have to tick on the census form: 'Don't believe in God, but I do stillhateRangers.'"[48]
His surname is the original Irish form of O'Brien. He said, "My dad was involved in theIrish language movement and changed it. Even Irish people are now confused by it".[47]
Ó Briain is a fan of English football clubArsenal,[49] and ofGaelic games, having played forWicklow county football team at minor level.[50] When his tweet congratulatingLondon on knockingSligo out of the2013 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was read out onThe Sunday Game, Ó Briain expressed amazement and vowed to try to have one read out every week.[51][52] Ó Briain has also expressed an interest inIrish cricket, and has written about the subject forThe Guardian newspaper.[53] As well as this he has attempted to explainhurling to British audiences.[54] He attended many events of the2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.[55]
Ó Briain was one of fifteen members of a racing greyhound syndicate for several years. The December 2009 transmission ofThree Men Go to Ireland featured their dogSnip Nua who, by the time of transmission, had beenput down following injuries sustained in a race. Ó Briain was so upset about the death that he and his fellow syndicate members immediately disbanded the syndicate permanently.[citation needed] In early 2010, a series of small demonstrations were held outside some of Ó Briain's tour venues, urging him to publicly denounce the sport ofgreyhound racing due to the dog's death.
In 2020, Ó Briain tweeted that anasteroid had been named after him:4901 Ó Briain.[56][57]
In 2020, having known that he was adopted, he successfully sought out his birth family.[8]
In 2022, Ó Briain became one of the Patrons for thePlaza Cinema, Stockport.[58]
| Title | Released | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Live at the Theatre Royal | 13 November 2006 | Theatre Royal, London |
| Dara Ó Briain Talks Funny – Live in London | 17 November 2008 | Hammersmith Apollo, London |
| This Is the Show | 22 November 2010 | Hammersmith Apollo, London |
| Craic Dealer | 12 November 2012 | The Playhouse, Edinburgh |
| Crowd Tickler | 23 November 2015 | Hammersmith Apollo, London |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
