Rob Brydon was born in Baglan, near Port Talbot, He went to the Welsh College of Music and Drama and later 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. Brydon also starred in Cruise of the Gods with Steve Coogan as part of the BBC's Christmas 2002 highlights.

In 2003, he 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.

February 2004 saw the pilot for The Keith Barret Show, in which Keith is 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.