David Baddiel

David Baddiel
Born	(1964-05-28) May 28, 1964 Troy, New York, United States
Nationality	British
Years active	1988 – present
Notable works and roles	The Mary Whitehouse Experience "Newman and Baddiel" (with Rob Newman) Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned

David Baddiel (born May 28, 1964, Troy, New York, United States) is an English comedian, novelist and television presenter.

Early life

Baddiel's father was a research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 80s, after which he sold dinky toys at Grays Antique Market. His mother was a refugee from Nazi Germany.

Baddiel grew up in Dollis Hill, North London and after studying at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, an independent school near Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, he read English at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, and graduated with a double first. He then followed this up with a PhD in English at University College London, which he did not finish.

Career

Newman

Baddiel became a cabaret stand-up comedian after leaving university and also wrote sketches and jokes for various radio series. His first television appearance came in a bit-part on one episode of the showbiz satire Filthy, Rich and Catflap. In 1988, he was introduced to Rob Newman, a comic impressionist, and the two became a writing partnership. They were subsequently paired up with the partnership of Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis for a new topical comedy show for BBC Radio 1 called The Mary Whitehouse Experience, and its success led to a transfer to television, shooting Baddiel to fame. Two seasons were made for BBC2, during which time Baddiel also co-hosted a Channel 4 monologue programme, A Stab In The Dark with Michael Gove and Tracey MacLeod.

After the two duos chose not to do another series of The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Baddiel teamed up with Newman again for the Newman and Baddiel in Pieces series, which ran in 1993. The duo subsequently split with some acrimony after becoming the first ever comedians to play (and sell out) Wembley Arena.

Skinner

Baddiel then took in a lodger at his London apartment - fellow comedian Frank Skinner - and asked his new flatmate to co-present when he was offered the chance to do a programme based on the fantasy football craze in newspapers. The show was Fantasy Football League, and later they took an improvised question-and-answer show to the Edinburgh Festival which then became a TV series, Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned. The duo also twice topped the UK singles chart with the football anthem "Three Lions", initially written as the England football team's official anthem for Euro 96, and later re-issued, with updated lyrics, as an unofficial song for the 1998 World Cup. Baddiel and Skinner collaborated on podcasts for Times Online during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Solo

In 2001, Baddiel made a sitcom for Sky One, Baddiel's Syndrome. In 2004, he created a show called Heresy for Radio 4, which attempts to challenge received opinion. This has now had four series on Radio 4, the last being in 2007. He also played himself in the BBC animated comedy series Monkey Dust, in a self-lampooning role. He has appeared in the UK comedy Little Britain playing a person dressed up as David Baddiel. He did not speak in the show, only mimed someone else speaking over him.

He writes a regular Books column for The Times newspaper, appearing every other Saturday. The column is written fortnightly, shared in alternate weeks by the novelist Jeanette Winterson. He also writes a column for Esquire magazine. On 30 October 2005 he appeared on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in the one-night play Night Sky alongside Christopher Eccleston, Bruno Langley, David Warner, Navin Chowdhry and Saffron Burrows. He has also written three novels: Time For Bed, Whatever Love Means and The Secret Purposes. In 2007 he hosted BBC Four's The Book Quiz and made a documentary for BBC One on the subject of the history of restitution for holocaust victims and their descendants, entitled Baddiel And The Missing Nazi Billions.

Baddiel is regarded as one of the media figures who, in the 90's,cultivated and popularised the public image of the "mockney."

Family

He has a daughter, Dolly, born in 2001, and a son, Ezra, born in 2004, with his girlfriend, Morwenna Banks. Baddiel lives "round the corner" from the Osteria Emilia restaurant in Hampstead, London. Baddiel is Jewish and his mother was born in Nazi Germany, a swastika appearing on her birth certificate. An episode of the BBC's genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? investigated his heritage in some detail, but failed to disprove his theory that his mother had been secretly adopted from another Jewish family who had no hope of escaping (her parents had been married but childless for a decade before she was born). His book The Secret Purposes is based in part on the internment of his grandfather on the Isle of Man during the Second World War. His father is Welsh and he is the middle son of three boys. His older brother works as a screenwriter and lives in North London, and his younger brother drives a cab and lives in New York.

During an appearance on the Channel 4 topical panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats (26 May 2006) he revealed that he had been voted the "World's 6th Sexiest Jew". He appeared in a special episode of What Not to Wear where fashion gurus Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine gave him a makeover.

External links

• David Baddiel at IMDb