1982–1999: Early radio work Brydon attended the
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama,
Cardiff. He left after a year, to join
Radio Wales at the age of 20. He is also known for voice-over work in television advertising, including for
Renault,
Tango,
The Times,
Tesco,
Abbey National,
Sainsbury's,
McDonald's,
Pot Noodle,
Domino's Pizza,
Crunchy Nut Cornflakes,
The Observer and
Fairy Liquid. He has also provided voices in animated films such as
The Gruffalo, ''
The Gruffalo's Child and Room on the Broom'' (left),
Steve Coogan (middle), and Brydon (right) at the
Ryerson Theatre in
Toronto, Canada, 2005 In 2005 he portrayed a version of himself in the British comedy
A Cock and Bull Story directed by
Michael Winterbottom. Brydon starred opposite
Steve Coogan. Dana Stevens of
Slate wrote, "Rob Brydon, plays Tristram’s Uncle Toby, a blustering war veteran with a wound in an unspeakable place. In the modern-day scenes, Rob Brydon is, surprise, Rob Brydon, an actor with an ego even more pitifully in need of stroking than Coogan’s. The unscripted-sounding exchanges between these two are the funniest part of the movie". From 2007 to 2010 Brydon gained prominence for his leading role as Uncle Bryn in the BBC sitcom
Gavin & Stacey starring
Matthew Horne,
Joanna Page, and
James Corden. In the 2009 Brydon was nominated for the
BAFTA Award for Best Comedy Performance as Bryn. Starting in 2009 Brydon has hosted the game show
Would I Lie to You?. Since these series Brydon has developed a career path as a character actor, in both comedic and serious roles. He portrayed controversial theatre critic
Kenneth Tynan in the BBC Four film
Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore (2005), opposite
Julian Sands as
Laurence Olivier. Also in 2006, Brydon first appeared on the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game ''
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. His singing voice earned the unprecedented accolade from the former host, Humphrey Lyttelton, of being "not bad". When the team went on a tour of non-broadcast stage shows, Brydon filled in as chairman when Lyttelton was in hospital to repair an aortic aneurysm. Lyttelton died in hospital after surgery. Brydon narrated a two-part programme on BBC Radio 4, The Pain of Laughter: The Last Days of Kenneth Williams''. It explored the latter part of
Williams's life, featuring many of the performer's friends and contemporaries. In other radio work Brydon sat in for
Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 for one day only on 25 August 2008. On 1 April 2011, Brydon impersonated Bruce for the entire two-hour and thirty minutes show. Bruce came on the air at the end of the show to reveal the
prank. Brydon has appeared on the TV comedy quiz
QI. In his first appearance (Series A, episode 5), his talent for mimicry was displayed with impressions of
Alec Guinness,
James Dean, and
Michael J. Fox. In the 2008
Christmas special, he provided impressions of
Richard Burton and
Tom Jones. His character
Bryn West in
Gavin & Stacey, written by Ruth Jones and
James Corden, allowed him to return to his South Wales roots. In this role Brydon performed the 2009
Comic Relief charity single, "
(Barry) Islands in the Stream", with Ruth Jones (both actors appearing as their characters from
Gavin & Stacey) and singer
Tom Jones. It reached No.1 in the
UK Singles Chart on 15 March 2009. In February 2009, it was announced that Brydon would be one of three people to replace Lyttelton as chairman of the 51st series of ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
(the others being Stephen Fry and Jack Dee). Brydon has presented an episode of Have I Got News for You'' His impressions include Alec Guinness, James Dean, Michael J. Fox, Richard Burton, Tom Jones,
Michael Caine,
Mick Jagger and
Ronnie Corbett. He is also noted for his "Small Man in A Box" impression. In 2010 Brydon starred alongside
Steve Coogan in
Michael Winterbottom's partially improvised BBC Two sitcom series
The Trip, in which both actors played fictionalised versions of their public personas (Brydon, optimistic and always eager to do an impression; and Coogan,
misanthropic and bitter that he's not the major international star he believes he should be). Brydon's book
Small Man in a Book (the title a play on his "small-man-in-a-box" impression) was published in November 2011. That same year he narrated
The Chasers Road Trip: Trains, Brains and Automobiles, was a contestant on
Celebrity Catchphrase, and voiced The Crow in
Superworm alongside
Olivia Colman and
Matt Smith. The following year he voiced the Pied Piper in
The Amazing Maurice (2022) alongside
Hugh Laurie,
Emilia Clarke,
David Thewlis and
Hugh Bonneville. In 2023 he had a brief role as
Sugar Daddy Ken in
Greta Gerwig's comedy
Barbie starring
Margot Robbie and
Ryan Gosling. In 2022, Brydon appeared in
Stephen Sondheim's
Old Friends revue, including alongside
Haydn Gwynne in "The Little Things You Do Together", the marital battle from
Company. In 2026, Brydon hosted game show
The Floor on ITV. ==Personal life==