Tom Basden
Tom Basden in 2025
Born	Thomas William Basden (1980-11-30)30 November 1980 (age 45) Sutton, Greater London, England
Occupations	Actor, comedian, writer
Years active	2006–present
Spouse	Megan Walsh
Children	2

Thomas William Basden (born 30 November 1980) is an English actor, writer, comedian, and musician. He is best known for co-creating and starring inPlebs, which won theRoyal Television Society award for Best Scripted Comedy in 2014.^[1] He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2007Edinburgh Comedy Awards and is a member of thesketch groupCowards. He co-wrote and starred in the 2025 filmThe Ballad of Wallis Island.

Basden was born inSutton, Greater London. He was educated atKing's College School, aprivate school for boys inWimbledon in South-West London, where he was in the same year as fellow actorsKhalid Abdalla andBen Barnes; followed byPembroke College, Cambridge. He was vice president ofCambridge Footlights and his contemporaries includedStefan Golaszewski,Sarah Solemani,Tim Key (who pretended to be studying for a Ph.D at Cambridge to be part of a Footlights production)^[2] andDan Stevens.^[3]

Basden's one-man show at the 2007Edinburgh Festival Fringe,Tom Basden Won't Say Anything, won theif.comedy award for Best Newcomer.^[4] He starred withTim Key in the 2007 short filmThe One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, which won theUK Film Council Kodak Award for Best British Short Film.^[5] The short was expanded into a feature film,The Ballad of Wallis Island, which Basden and Key also starred in, alongsideCarey Mulligan, and which was produced byBaby Cow.^[6]

In 2008, Basden appeared as the resident musician for the second series of theBBC Radio 4 comedy showMark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better, replacingTim Minchin.^[7]

He was a guest panellist on theBBC Two comedy showNever Mind the Buzzcocks in November 2009.^[8]

Since 2012, he has appeared as Key's musical sidekick in theRadio 4 comedyTim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme.^[9]

Since 2013, Basden has co-written and appeared in the ITV ancient-Rome sitcomPlebs.^[10] He played a lead role the 2013 BBC Two comedy thrillerThe Wrong Mans.^[11] He co-wrote the third and fifth episodes of series one, and wrote both episodes of series two which aired the following year.

He played Dan the sound engineer in the 2016 filmDavid Brent: Life on the Road, andJeremy Corbyn in the 2018 Royal Wedding special ofThe Windsors.^[12] He had a main role as Matt in theNetflix comedy seriesAfter Life.^[13] He wrote and appeared in the 2022 BBC sitcomHere We Go.^[14] He starred as Mr Short in the 2022Netflix young adult sci-fi seriesThe Last Bus.^[15]

Basden's 2010 playParty, about a group of university students holding a meeting to found their own political party, was performed at theArts Theatre in London. Brian Logan, writing forThe Guardian, gave it a four out of a possible five stars and describing it "an idiosyncratic and highly enjoyable piece performed beautifully by a crack cast of upcoming comics",^[16] while Dominic Cavendish forThe Daily Telegraph called it "astute (and) stingingly amusing".^[17]A radio adaptation of the play produced by Julia McKenzie was broadcast on Radio 4 for three series and a Christmas special from 2010 to 2018. In addition to writing the adaptation, Basden appeared, alongside Tim Key,Jonny Sweet,Anna Crilly andKaty Wix.^[18]

His playJoseph K, based onFranz Kafka's novelThe Trial and starring Tim Key, was longlisted for the2011 Evening Standard Theatre Awards Most Promising Playwright: it also received positive reviews fromThe Guardian^[19] andThe Daily Telegraph.^[20]

In 2011 he wroteThere Is a War, starring himself andPhoebe Fox, for theNational Theatre'sDouble Feature.^[21]

Basden co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcomFresh Meat, which earned him a nomination for the 2012BAFTA Craft Awards Break-Through Talent Award.^[22]

With Tim Key, Basden co-wrote the 2025 feature film,The Ballad of Wallis Island.^[6] Basden wrote and performed the music for the film, and released an album with co-starCarey Mulligan credited to 'McGwyer Mortimer', the fictional band they perform as.^[23]

• Professional website of Tom Badsen
• Official Cowards website
• Tom Basden atIMDb

• 1980 births
• Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
• People educated at King's College School, London
• Living people
• English comedy writers
• English male comedians
• English male television actors
• English male stage actors
• 20th-century English comedians
• 21st-century English comedians
• Actors from the London Borough of Sutton
• Comedians from the London Borough of Sutton
• Male actors from London

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• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2014
• Use British English from May 2022
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