Simon Antony Bird (born 19 August 1984) is an English comedian, actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing

Will McKenzie This is a list of characters from the British sitcom ''The Inbetweeners'', which ran for three series from 2008–2010 on E4. A 2011 film was also released, followed by a sequel in 2014. Cast Main characters Will McKenzie William McKenzie ...

in the multi-award-winning E4 comedy series ''

The Inbetweeners ''The Inbetweeners'' is a British coming-of-age television teen sitcom, which originally aired on E4 from 2008 until 2010 and was created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager ...

'' (2008–2010), as well as its two films (2011 and 2014), and Adam Goodman in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

comedy series ''

Friday Night Dinner ''Friday Night Dinner'' is a British television sitcom written by Robert Popper and starring Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, and Mark Heap. The comedy is focused on the regular dinner experience of the middle-class Bri ...

'' (2011–2020).

Early life

Bird was born in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, as the third of four children of

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and internat ...

Professors Graham and Heather Bird. Bird was educated at Cranmore School,

West Horsley West Horsley is a semi-rural village between Guildford and Leatherhead in Surrey, England. It lies on the A246, and south of the M25 and the A3. Its civil parish ascends to an ancient woodland Sheepleas Woods which are on the northern downsl ...

, the

Royal Grammar School, Guildford The Royal Grammar School, Guildford (originally 'The Free School'), also known as the RGS, is a selective independent day school for boys in Guildford, Surrey in England. The school dates its founding to the death of Robert Beckingham in 1509 w ...

, and

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

, where he read English. At Cambridge, Bird was the president of the

Footlights Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University. History Footlights' inaugural ...

, the university's sketch and theatrical group.

Career

Early comedy career

While completing a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in cultural and critical studies at

Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public university, public research university, located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal Universit ...

, Bird set up the sketch comedy group "The House of Windsor" with former Footlights contemporaries Joe Thomas (who plays Simon Cooper in ''The Inbetweeners'') and

Jonny Sweet Jonny Sweet (born 1985) is a British comedian and the recipient of the 2009 Edinburgh Comedy Award for best newcomer. Early life Sweet was born in Nottingham and educated at the local independent school Nottingham High School. He read English ...

. They performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007 and in 2008 with a show called ''The Meeting'', described as a site-specific comedy installation set in an actual boardroom. Bird and Thomas were also regulars on series 1 and 2 of ''The Weekly Show'', a podcast for

Channel 4 Radio Channel 4 Radio was a radio brand in the United Kingdom, launched by Channel Four Television Corporation in January 2007. On 11 October 2008 its closure was announced. It incorporated Oneword, in which Channel 4 purchased a 51% share in 2005, alt ...

(2006–07). Bird also performs stand-up comedy and took part in Chortle's national student comedy awards in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, coming second in his final attempt. He was a finalist in 2006, and was disqualified for deliberately breaking the rules in 2007.

Breakthrough

In 2008, Bird was cast in E4's teen comedy ''

'' as Will McKenzie, along with Joe Thomas. He won the 2008

British Comedy Award The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. The British Comedy Awards (1 ...

for Best Male Newcomer and the 2009

for Best Actor. He was also nominated for Best Comedy Performance at the 2008

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

Awards, and Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme at the 2009

BAFTA Television Awards The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the BAFTA. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in 1955, consisted of six categories. Until ...

Subsequent work

In 2010, Bird created a

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

comedy panel show '' The King Is Dead'', in which a well-known person is hypothetically killed off and a panel of three personalities go head-to-head in a series of satirical quiz rounds and challenges in their bid to replace them. He hosted alongside

Nick Mohammed Nicholas George Mohammed (born 4 October 1980) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his character Mr. Swallow, which he has portrayed across both stage and television for over a decade. Outside of the United Kingdom, M ...

and

Katy Wix Katy Victoria J Wix (born 28 February 1980) is a Welsh actress, writer, author and artist. She is best known for her television roles as Carole in '' Stath Lets Flats,'' Mary in '' Ghosts'' and Jules in ''Big Boys''. She has also appeared as a ...

. From 2011-2020 Bird starred in 6 series of ''

'', a single-camera comedy written by

Robert Popper Robert Darren Popper (born 23 November 1967) is a British comedy producer, writer, actor, and author, best known as co-creator of the mock BBC documentary ''Look Around You'', and creator of Channel 4's sitcom ''Friday Night Dinner''. He also w ...

and made by

Big Talk Productions Big Talk Productions Limited is a British film and television production company founded by Nira Park in 1994. Big Talk was acquired by ITV Studios in 2013. Film Filmography Released Upcoming Critical reception Commercial performance T ...

. Like The Inbetweeners it was named Best Sitcom at the Rose D'Or Festival. In 2021 Channel 4 released ''Friday Night Dinner: 10 Years And A Lovely Bit Of Squirrel'', an anniversary special celebrating a decade of the hit sitcom. Bird returned to the character of

in ''

The Inbetweeners Movie ''The Inbetweeners Movie'', known simply as ''The Inbetweeners'' in North America, is a 2011 British coming-of-age teen adventure comedy film based on the E4 sitcom ''The Inbetweeners'', written by series creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris ...

'' which was released on 17 August 2011 and is the highest-grossing comedy film ever released in the UK. In 2014 he resumed the role in the second movie about the Inbetweeners, ''

The Inbetweeners 2 ''The Inbetweeners 2'', is a 2014 teen coming of age adventure sex comedy film and sequel to ''The Inbetweeners Movie'' (2011), which is based on the E4 sitcom ''The Inbetweeners''. It was written and directed by series creators Damon Beesley ...

'', which had the highest-grossing opening weekend of any film in the UK that year. In 2013 Bird co-created, co-wrote, and co-starred in ''Chickens'', a sitcom about three men who remain in England during World War I. It premiered on Sky1 in summer 2013 and was nominated for Best Comedy at the 2014 Broadcast Awards. In 2017 he starred on the West End in '' The Philanthropist'', directed by Simon Callow. In his review, The Telegraph's theatre critic Dominic Cavendish wrote "Callow has certainly struck gold with leading man Simon Bird...he delivers the goods by subtle, incremental means, the thespian equivalent of a 3D printer". Bird's debut stand-up show ''Debrief'', recorded in an empty theatre, was released on All4 in 2022 and described by comedy website Chortle as "more like an experimental art-house movie than a stand-up special". Bird will star in a new Channel 4 sitcom ''Everyone Else Burns'', produced by Jax Media and NBC Universal, to be released in 2023.

Directing

In 2016, Bird directed his first short film ''Ernestine and Kit'' based on a story by Kevin Barry. It premiered at SXSW where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short. It was also nominated for Best Short Film at the 2016 Irish Television and Film Awards. His debut feature film '' Days of Bagnold Summer'', was released in 2020, backed by

Creative England Creative UK (known as Creative England from 2010 to 2021) is a not-for-profit organisation that supports the creative industries in the United Kingdom. The business promotes the development of creative companies, which in turn support business acr ...

and the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

. It was described by Mark Kermode as "a gem of a movie...laugh-out-loud funny and piercingly poignant". It was nominated for the Variety Piazza Grande Award at the Locarno Film Festival and was named Best Feature at the LUCAS International Festival For Young Film Lovers. It currently has a 92% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For TV, Bird directed Series 3 of BAFTA-nominated mockumentary ''Pls Like'' and the first series of Rose D'Or-nominated sketch show ''Ellie & Natasia'', described by ''The Times'' as "the funniest and most refreshing take on the format for years".

Producing

In 2015 Bird and Jonny Sweet founded Guilty Party Pictures, an independent TV and film production company backed by StudioCanal. It produced a number of projects including ''God's Own County'', nominated for Best Short-Form Comedy at the 2019 Broadcast Awards, ''How Europe Stole My Mum'', described by ''The Guardian'' as "nothing short of a miracle", and ''How We Forgot To Save The Planet'', which won the 2022 RTS Scotland Award for Best Comedy. In 2022 it was announced that Bird and Sweet were setting up a new company, People Person Pictures, in partnership with BBC Studios. People Person Pictures was named as a co-producing partner on ''Wicked Little Letters'', a feature film starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Timothy Spall, to be released in 2024.

Personal life

In 2012, Bird married author Lisa Owens. They have two children. Bird is a supporter of

Crystal Palace Football Club Crystal Palace Football Club is a professional football club based in Selhurst in the Borough of Croydon, South London, England, who compete in the Premier League, the highest level of English football. Although formally created as a profe ...

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bird, Simon 1984 births Living people 21st-century English comedians 21st-century English male actors Actors from Guildford Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge English male comedians English male film actors English male television actors English male writers English stand-up comedians Male actors from Surrey People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford