Irish comedian Dylan Moran was born in Navan, County Meath in 1971. Leaving school without any qualifications at age 16, Moran quickly became attracted to stand-up comedy and debuted, in 1992, at a comedy club in Dublin, The Comedy Cellar. A year later, he won the Channel Four comedy newcomer's "So You Think You're Funny" award at the Edinburgh Festival, and began developing his comedy routines into a one-man show, "Gurgling for Money", for which he won the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award in 1996, and which he subsequently took to a nationwide tour of the UK. His exposure at the Edinburgh Festival also led to him getting programmed at international stand-up comedy festivals, worldwide. Subsequently, Moran took to writing and performing for British television. He has starred in the BBC sitcom, _"How Do You Want Me?" that has had one too many. Moran is very reluctant to give interviews on his personal life and even on his career, a fact parodied in a staged interview inter-cut with the recording of his live stand-up show, "Monster", on its DVD release.
Perrier Award for Comedy Winner, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Called the Perrier Award (which he won in 1996) "a load of media rubbish". He thought fellow comedian (and future "Black Books" co-star) Bill Bailey should have won it.
Dylan was personally recommended to Simon Pegg for the role of "David" in Shaun of the Dead by producer Nira Park (who also produced Dylans show, "Black Books" and Simons show, "Spaced" ). Pegg claimed he wasnt sure Moran was right for the part at first, but he saw Dylans audition tape and he "nailed it". (Dylan, himself, wasnt intially sure he was right for the part, either, and actually suggested they cast comedian David Walliams , instead).
Got married in London on the day of Princess Diana s funeral, in a church just around the corner.
Has written numerous articles for The Irish Times newspaper.
Is a fan of the British musician, PJ Harvey , and often uses her song, "50ft Queenie", as intro music at his shows.
Made his acting debut in the 1998 BBC series, "How Do You Want Me?" , opposite Charlotte Coleman.
Made his US television debut, on June 25 2004, on "Late Show with David Letterman" .
Met his future "Black Books" co-star, Bill Bailey , many years earlier, on the UK comedy circuit.
Met his future wife, Elaine, at The Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh (where she was working at the time, and where he was performing.) The venue was sadly destroyed in the Old Town fire of December 2002.
Started life as a stand-up comic in 1992 after a visit to the Comedy Cellar in Dublin. Won the prestigious So You Think Youre Funny? award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, aged just 21. Won the festivals top prize (The Perrier Award) three years later.
Went to school with fellow Irish comic (and Perrier Award-winner) Tommy Tiernan.
He was inspired by Ardal OHanlon to start in comedy, when he saw him at Comedy Cellar in Dublin in the early 1990s.
As of 2005 he and fellow Navan man Tommy Tiernan are the only So you Think Your Funny Winners to go on to win The Perrier award during its entire 25 year run at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. As of 2006 they will be the only ones to do so under the name of the Perrier. It will now become known as the If.Comeddie Awards.
Father of a girl named Siobhan and a boy named Simon.
After leaving school, it has been said that Moran spent four years unemployed "drinking and writing bad poetry".
Once worked as a florist but quit after a week because he hated the job.
The youngest person to win the Perrier Comedy Award in 1996 at the Edinburgh Festival at age 24.
The trend now is to get away from stage bound sitcoms.
We are both drawn to surreal situations so the writing was a joy.
You achieve the surreal jokes through the realism by making it elastic.
I think that women just have a primeval instinct to make soup, which,they will try to foist on anybody who looks like a likely candidate.
I think a lot of the time you just parody yourself.
I have a very low level of recognition, which is fine by me.
In the same way, there is some creature gnawing away inside of me,urging me to do things in different ways.
Showing off seemed to me to be a highly valuable and necessary activity,when I was 20.
Roman Catholicism seems to be a hysterical panic over the inevitability,of Death. "Quick! Death is coming! Put on the big hat and the gold,dress!",I mean, I wish I was like you, really, Protestant and short. . .
Its not easy being a man you know. I had to get dressed today… and there are other pressures.
I think that women just have a primeval instinct to make soup, which they will try to foist on anybody who looks like a likely candidate.
I fear we might be losing the basic human facility to be alone - and with that you throw out independent decision-making, what to trust, what not to trust; key stuff - a perilous loss.
