Dara O Briain released his first book on 1 October 2009, the book is entitled Tickling the English and is about what he perceives it means to be English. As part of its promotion Dara O Briain has stated that he is a great fan of English culture and a student of English history, his favourite periods being the Gin Epidemic and the civil war. His favourite historical Englishman is Oliver Cromwell.
Other notable television work of Dara O Briain includes hosting the BBC sitcom writing competition "Last Laugh", and three documentaries which re-created the British comedy novel Three Men in a Boat. For this, Dara O Briain rowed up the River Thames with Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath. A sequel, Three Men in Another Boat, in which they raced from the Tower Bridge to the Isle of Wight, was first aired in January 2008, and the third in the series, Three Men in More Than One Boat, was broadcast in January 2009.
Dara O Briain conducted his third and largest multinational tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland in early 2006. This included 66 shows across London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast, as well as 9 nights in Dublin. Second night of Dara O Briain in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London was recorded for his first live DVD. Dara O Briain fourth multinational tour followed in late 2007, which as Dara O Briain says in his routine has "no title" but was almost entitled "You Had to Be There". Dara O Briain has also been an extensive newspaper columnist, with pieces published in many national papers in both the UK and Ireland, from the Sunday Times to the Daily Telegraph. On 9 August, 2006, Dara O Briain hosted the first episode of his new celebrity chat show, Turn Back Time.
The Panel was hosted by Dara O Briain. Three times nominated for the Best Entertainment show IFTA (Irish Film and Television Award) the show has a rotating cast of panelists, usually drawn from the world of Irish comedy, discussing the events of the week and interviewing guests. The most regular panelists have been Colin Murphy, Ed Byrne, Neil Delamere and Andrew Maxwell.
Dara O Briain was nominated in 2003 at the Chortle Comedy Awards for Live Comedy in the categories Best Compère and Best Headline Act (which he would go on to win). In 2004 Dara O Briain won the Best Headliner award again, as well as being nominated for Best Full-length Show. From 2005, Dara O Briain is the host of the comedy panel game Mock the Week on BBC television, a blend between Have I Got News for You and Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Dara O Briain is a relatively frequent panelist on QI, and wrote about Ireland in the QI series E annual, and appears occasionally on Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4. Dara O Briain has also appeared in and hosted the stand-up show Live at the Apollo.
After leaving college, Dara O Briain began working at RTE as a children's TV presenter. At this time Dara O Briain also began performing his first stand-up gigs on the Irish comedy circuit. Dara O Briain spent three years as a presenter on the bilingual (Irish and English) language children's programme Echo Island but came to prominence as a team captain on the topical panel show Don't Feed The Gondolas (1998-2000) hosted by Sean Moncrieff.
Dara O Briain's stand up career internationally took off around this time as he began to tour heavily, performing across Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, with gigs in Dubai, Boston, Adelaide, Shanghai and New York. Dara O Briain was a regular at the Kilkenny Cat Laughs and the Edinburgh Festival, as well as making one notable appearance at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal in 2002 where Dara O Briain was offered a prestigious gala show because of his performances at the Irish showcase. Around this time Dara O Briain presented the weekend mainstream game show It's a Family Affair for RTE. It was the first time Dara O Briain worked with former Channel 4 commissioning editor Seamus Cassidy. They later set up the production company Happy Endings Productions, and together they produced (and Dara O Briain presented) the chat show Buried Alive (2003) and most famously in Ireland The Panel (2003-2006).
| Born: | 4 February 1972 (1972-02-04) (age 37) Wicklow, Ireland |
| Medium: | Stand up and Television |
Nationality: | Irish |
| Years Active: | 1998 - Present |
| Genres: | Improvisation Observational Satire |
| Influences: | Eddie Izzard Paul Merton Lewis Black |
| Spouse: | Susan (2006 - Present) |
| Notable Works and Roles: | Don't Feed The Gondolas (1998-2000) The Panel (2003-2006) Mock the Week (2005-present) Turn Back Time (2006) |
