Dara Ó Briain

Born in 1972 in Bray on Ireland’s east coast, Dara Ó Briain has built a career at the crossroads of stand-up, television and science communication. Trained in mathematics and theoretical physics at University College Dublin, he began in the 1990s on Dublin’s comedy circuit while working for Irish television, before relocating to London and undertaking extensive tours across the UK and Ireland. Ó Briain’s comedy blends observational stand-up, improvisation with the audience, and references to science, popular culture and his Irish background, with a marked preference for richly detailed digressions over short sketches. From 2005 onwards, his role as host of the satirical programme "Mock the Week" on BBC Two became a cornerstone of his career, alongside a series of science, astronomy and mathematics programmes, including "Stargazing Live", "Dara Ó Briain’s Science Club" and "School of Hard Sums". He has also expanded into video game culture with "Go 8 Bit" and into publishing, authoring travel books and several science titles for children, while continuing to record live shows and tour internationally.