Robert Brydon Jones

Rob Brydon (born Robert Brydon Jones, 3 May 1965) is a Welsh actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter, singer and writer. He was born in Baglan, Glamorgan, to Joy Jones, a school teacher, and Howard Jones, a car dealer. He was educated at St. John's School in Porthcawl and Dumbarton House School in Swansea, then Porthcawl Comprehensive School, where he met Ruth Jones and joined the youth theatre group. He attended the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff but left after a year to join Radio Wales at the age of 20. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013 for services to comedy and broadcasting and for charitable services.

Brydon gained fame for his roles in the black comedy series Human Remains (2000), the mockumentary Marion and Geoff (2000-2003), the chat show spoof The Keith Barret Show (2004-2005), and the comedy Supernova (2005-2006). From 2007 to 2024 he played Bryn West in the BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey, for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Comedy Performance. He has acted in several films with Steve Coogan for director Michael Winterbottom, including 24 Hour Party People (2002), A Cock and Bull Story (2005), and The Trip series (2010-2020), and appeared in Cinderella (2015), The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016), Holmes & Watson (2019) and Barbie (2023).

Since 2009, Brydon has presented the BBC One comedy panel show Would I Lie to You?, having previously hosted a fictional panel show in Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive (2006-2007). He also presented The Rob Brydon Show and the 2014 game show The Guess List for BBC One. Earlier in his career he was a voice artist, providing voices for the Discworld computer games as Lewton in Discworld Noir, extensive voice-over work in advertising, and animated films such as The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child and Room on the Broom. He cites Barry Humphries, Frankie Howerd and Woody Allen as primary childhood comedy influences.