Rob Brydon was born in Baglan, near Port Talbot. He went to the Welsh College of Music and Drama. Later he spent six years as a DJ on BBC Radio Wales.
Amongst the comedy characters he created on a show with Alan Thompson were a pair called Tony and Keith. The latter becoming the prototype for Keith Barret in Marion and Geoff.
A glorious career as a voiceover artist followed. Highlights included Toilet Duck and the voice of a whimpering bondage man for Tango.
Six, ten-minute episodes of Marion and Geoff went out in 2000 to critical acclaim, and garnered multiple awards including a Best Television Comedy Newcomer award for Brydon at the British Comedy Awards. Later that year, Human Remains achieved similar accolades and scooped him a Best Television Comedy Actor gong at the 2001 Awards.
He had a cameo in the 2001 feature film 24 Hour Party People, and went on to appear in Murder in Mind, I’m Alan Partridge and Black Books in 2002. Rob also starred in Cruise of the Gods with Steve Coogan as part of the BBC’s Christmas 2002 highlights.
Rob was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In that same year Marion and Geoff were back, with a series of half-hour episodes of bittersweet, painfully comic tales from the eternal optimist (and now chauffeur), Keith. He also appeared on stage as Keith with the one-man show Making Divorce Work.
2004 saw the pilot for The Keith Barret Show. Here was where Keith was cast as the host of a chat show about relationships. Brydon has also starred in the critically-acclaimed ITV series, Director’s Commentary as the voice of Peter De Lane.
BBC’s The Trip in 2010 saw Rob and Steve Coogan go on a short break. Both Rob and Steve played versions of their public personas as they sampled hotels and meals in the Lake District. Both of them are talented impressionists. They were often debating who did the best voice of Michael Caine, Ronnie Corbert, Sean Connery and others. However, Rob’s Small Man Trapped in a Box voice was not something Steve could compete with. The Trip was so successful, it was followed on with The Trip to Italy. That was then followed by The Trip to Spain in 2017 and in 2020 The Trip to Greece.
Rob also presents the BBC panel show Would I Lie to You? along side team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack which has been showing since 2007. Rob took over as host in 2009 from Angus Deayton.
Rob Brydon is a popular choice of host for corporate awards and comedian for corporate cabaret.