Mark Steel

Mark Steel (born 4 July 1960) is an English author, broadcaster, stand-up comedian and newspaper columnist. He has made many appearances on radio and television shows as a guest panellist, and has written regular columns in The Guardian, The Independent and Daily Mirror. He presents The Mark Steel Lectures, The Mark Steel Solution, Mark Steel's in Town and the podcast What the Fuck Is Going On? He was born in Swanley, Kent, and was adopted 10 days after he was born; his adoptive father worked in insurance and his mother supplemented the family income through factory work and working as a lollipop lady.

Steel later traced his biological mother, who said she did not want to know him and died soon after; he learned she was from a Scottish working-class family with an active involvement in left-wing politics. His biological father, Joe Dwek, was an Egyptian Sephardic Jew who became a multi-millionaire Wall Street trader and a professional backgammon player. Steel documented his early life, adoption and quest to find his birth parents in an Audible audio book, Who Do I Think I Am?, released in December 2021.

Steel had various early jobs including a stint as a milkman, and acknowledges Alexei Sayle as an influence. In 1992 he presented the satirical radio show The Mark Steel Solution on BBC Radio 5, which ran to four series. His comic autobiography It's Not a Runner Bean (1996) led to a column in The Guardian. He has appeared frequently on Have I Got News For You, Room 101, Mock the Week and the Graham Norton Show. Mark Steel's in Town has won a Sony Award, Writers' Guild Award and Chortle Awards, and in 2014 he won the British Press Award for Broadsheet Columnist for his column in The Independent.