Dara Ó Briain facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dara Ó Briain
Ó Briain at the 2011 BAFTA awards
Born	(1972-02-04) 4 February 1972 (age 53) Bray, Ireland
Medium	Stand-up, television
Education	University College Dublin (BSc)
Genres	Observational comedy
Spouse	Susan Ó Briain ​ (m. 2006)​
Children	3

Dara Ó Briain (born 4 February 1972) is a famous Irish comedian and TV presenter. He is known for his stand-up comedy shows around the world. He has also hosted many popular TV shows, like Mock the Week, The Panel, and The Apprentice: You're Fired!. Many people see him as one of Britain's favourite Irish personalities.

In 2012, Dara was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award. This was for his great work on Mock the Week. He has also written articles for newspapers and published books for both adults and children. His first book for kids, Beyond the Sky, was even nominated for a Blue Peter Book Award in 2017.

Dara Ó Briain's Early Life

Dara Ó Briain was born in 1972 in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. He was adopted into a loving home and had a happy childhood. He has described his parents as very supportive.

He went to Coláiste Eoin secondary school, which is an Irish-speaking school in Dublin. After that, he studied at University College Dublin (UCD). There, he learned about mathematics and theoretical physics. He sometimes jokes that his science background helps him on stage.

While at university, he was very active. He was the head of the university's oldest debating society. He also helped start and edit the college newspaper, The University Observer. In 1994, he won two national debating championships, one in English and one in Irish. He speaks Irish fluently and often uses it when talking to his father.

Dara also played sports when he was younger. He played both Gaelic football and hurling for his local team, Bray Emmets GAA. He even played hurling for the Wicklow County minor team.

Starting His Comedy Career

After finishing university in 1994, Dara Ó Briain started working as a children's TV presenter at RTÉ, an Irish TV channel. At the same time, he began trying out stand-up comedy in Ireland. He remembers playing to very small audiences at first, but he learned a lot from these early shows. He thought it was amazing to get paid for telling jokes.

He spent three years as a presenter on Echo Island, a children's show that used both Irish and English. He became more well-known as a team captain on Don't Feed the Gondolas, a popular panel show that ran from 1998 to 2000.

Ó Briain at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Dara's stand-up comedy career really took off as he started touring a lot. He performed all over the world, including places like Dubai, Paris, Adelaide, Shanghai, and New York City. He was a regular at big comedy festivals like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland and Just For Laughs in Montreal, Canada.

In 2005, his show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the best-selling solo comedy show there. He continued to tour the United Kingdom and Ireland many times, performing to huge crowds. His shows were often recorded for DVD, like "Craic Dealer" and "Crowd Tickler."

In 2011, Dara, along with other comedians Jack Whitehall and Jon Richardson, set a new Guinness World Records title. They hosted the 'highest stand-up comedy gig in the world' on a British Airways flight to raise money for Comic Relief.

Dara on Television

Dara Ó Briain has been a familiar face on TV for many years.

Hosting Panel Shows

He hosted The Panel in Ireland, which was nominated three times for the Best Entertainment show at the IFTA. This show had different comedians discussing the week's news and interviewing guests.

Around 2002, Dara started appearing on UK TV shows like Never Mind the Buzzcocks. His big break in the UK came in 2003 when he was a guest on the news quiz Have I Got News for You. He later became a guest host on that show many times.

From 2005 to 2022, Dara was the host of the popular comedy panel show Mock the Week on BBC Two. This show combined elements of Have I Got News for You and Whose Line Is It Anyway? It ran for many years and was very successful.

He also hosted The Apprentice: You're Fired! from 2010 to 2014, which was a show that discussed the main Apprentice series.

Science and Adventure Shows

Dara is also well-known for his love of science. From 2011 to 2017, he and physicist Professor Brian Cox presented Stargazing Live on BBC Two. These shows were broadcast live from the Jodrell Bank Observatory and covered amazing space events like meteor showers and eclipses. They even covered Tim Peake's journey to the ISS.

From 2012, Dara presented Dara Ó Briain: School of Hard Sums on Dave. In this show, he and a guest tried to solve tricky math and physics puzzles. He also hosted Dara Ó Briain's Science Club, where he and other celebrities talked about different science topics.

In 2015, Dara met famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking for a series of interviews on BBC One. He also went on an adventure with fellow comedian Ed Byrne in Dara and Ed's Great Big Adventure. They traveled down the Pan-American Highway by car.

Other TV Appearances

Dara has appeared on many other TV shows. Since 2006, he has starred in the BBC's Three Men in a Boat series with Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath. They have traveled by boat on rivers and canals in different parts of the world.

He is also a frequent guest on the quiz show QI and has appeared on Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4. He holds the record for the most appearances on the BBC stand-up show Live at the Apollo.

In 2016, Dara started hosting a show about video games called Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit. He also presented the reboot of Robot Wars from 2016 to 2018, where robots battled each other. In 2019, he hosted a new version of the classic quiz show Blockbusters.

More recently, in 2022, Dara was a contestant on the comedy game show Taskmaster. He won his series and later won the "Champion of Champions" special. In 2023 and 2024, he presented science-themed shows for Channel 5, including Wonders of the Moon, Mysteries of the Pyramids, and Wonders of the Sun.

Books and Personal Life

In 2009, Dara released his first book for adults, Tickling the English. It's about what he thinks it means to be English. He has also written books for children, including Beyond the Sky: An Astronaut's Guide to Our Universe and Secret Science: The Amazing World Beyond Your Eyes.

Dara married his wife Susan, who is a surgeon, in 2006. They live in West London and have three children. He was the best man at his friend Ed Byrne's wedding.

Dara is an atheist, meaning he doesn't believe in God. However, he also says he is "ethnically Catholic" because of his Irish background. His last name, Ó Briain, is the original Irish spelling of O'Brien. His father changed it back to the Irish form.

He is a big fan of English football club Arsenal. He also loves Gaelic games, having played them when he was younger. He has written about Irish cricket for The Guardian newspaper.

In 2020, Dara found out that an asteroid had been named after him: 4901 Ó Briain. Also in 2020, he successfully found his birth family, having known he was adopted. In 2022, he became a Patron for the Plaza Cinema, Stockport.

Stand-up DVDs

Images for kids

• Dara O Briain BBC Radio4 Front Row 12 Apr 2012 b01fjx72.flac

  Dara Ó Briain's voice