Mitch Benn

Mitch Benn, full name Mitchell John Benn, is an English comedian, musician and author born on 20 January 1970 in Liverpool. He was educated at Dovedale Primary School and Liverpool Blue Coat School before attending the University of Edinburgh. He began performing comedy in Edinburgh in 1994 and moved to London in 1996, becoming a comedy club headliner and a regular on the university circuit. In 1995 he won the Best New Comedian competition at Glastonbury Festival, where he went on to perform annually until 2016.

Benn was the resident comic songwriter on BBC Radio 4's The Now Show from 1999 to 2016 and appeared on BBC Radio 2's It's Been a Bad Week between 2000 and 2006. In 2004 he created his own Radio 4 series, Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music, featuring Robin Ince and Alfie Joey, which ran for three series. Beyond comedy and music, he is the author of a science fiction trilogy, Terra (2013) and Terra's World (2016), both published by Gollancz, followed by the self-published Terra's War (2021). He performed regularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 2003.

In 2013, he played Zaphod Beeblebrox in the touring stage production The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Live Radio Show. He won Celebrity Mastermind in 2016, with Peter Cook as his specialist subject.