Dylan Moran is an Irish comedian and actor from Navan, County Meath, Ireland. His comedy is associated with deadpan, observational comedy, satire and surreal humour. He leaves school at 16 with no qualifications and later begins performing stand-up in Dublin, after watching Ardal O’Hanlon and other comedians at The Comedy Cellar, a small club with no microphone. He starts stand-up there in 1992, and the lack of formal qualifications becomes part of what attracts him to comedy.

Stand-up and writing

Moran wins the So You Think You’re Funny award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, then becomes the youngest person to win the Perrier Award in 1996, at the age of 24. Between 1995 and 1996 he writes a weekly column for The Irish Times. His first major one-man UK stand-up tour is Gurgling For Money in 1997. He later tours widely, including appearances at the Hay Literary Festival, the Montreal Comedy Festival, the Vancouver Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. He also performs the show Monster II, with performances in New York, Milan, Britain, London’s Palace Theatre, Dublin’s Vicar Street and the Hay Festival. A live DVD of that tour is filmed at Vicar Street and issued as his first live stand-up DVD.

Television and film

Moran is best known for playing Bernard Black in the Channel 4 sitcom Black Books, a role that becomes his most widely recognised television part. The series begins in 2000, with series 2 broadcast in 2002 and series 3 in 2004. He develops the original idea for the sitcom with co-writer Graham Linehan. Before that, he appears in the BBC Two sitcom How Do You Want Me? in 1998, and in 1999 he has a small role in Notting Hill as Rufus the thief. In 2004 he also appears in Shaun of the Dead as David. He is later due to appear in Tristram Shandy alongside Steve Coogan, Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon.

Personal details

Moran is born in 1971 in Navan, Ireland. He leaves school at 16, spends several years without work and describes that period as drinking and writing bad poetry. He works briefly as a florist for a week and dislikes the job. He is described as not very tall. After living in North London for many years, he lives with his family in Edinburgh. He is also known for being private in interviews and giving very little about his personal life.