Irish comedian Dylan Moran was born in Navan, County Meath in 1971. Leaving school without any qualifications aged 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? (1998)_ , and - more importantly - in 2000 he was commissioned by Channel Four for the sitcom _Black Books (2000)_ . He wrote and starred in three 6-episode series of this comedy. Co-starring popular British stand-up Bill Bailey , who was nominated for the Perrier Award the year Moran won, _Black Books (2000)_ sees Moran play a character close to his stand-up comedy persona: an unsociable misanthrope, reminiscent of the John Cleese sitcom character Basil Fawlty, that shares a great love of wine with one of razor-sharp put-downs of all things human. Also, his character Bernard Black's often surreal views on everyday things and on human behavior is close to his stand-up persona's dealing with them.

The same year the first series of Black Books aired Moran took his one-man show Ready, Steady, Cough on a UK tour, followed two years later by _Dylan Moran: Monster (2004)_ . This was followed by Monster II in 2004.

In the late 1990's, Moran also moved from doing stand-up to working on a film acting CV. He played opposite Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in Notting Hill , co-starred with Michael Caine in _The Actors (2003)_ and had parts in the Simon Pegg comedy _Shaun Of The Dead (2004)_ and the Michael Winterbottom film _A Cock And Bull Story (2005)_ .

Moran's live stand-up comedy is unique in that it merges two strands of stand-up that seemed incompatible for a long time: sharp observational humor, and surreal and fantastical language-based absurdity. On the one hand, he has a clear influence from what could be called an American school of stand-up comedy that is heavily observational. On the other, Moran's comedy is characterized by a use of language similar to the stand-up comedy of Eddie Izzard and Ross Noble : surreal associative leaps between on the one side observations and on the other fantasies, verbally painting bizarre and absurd worlds, often through a use of stream-of-consciousness narration. His language is often highly poetic, resembling a James Joyce 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 [1996] Dylan was personally recommended to Simon Pegg for the role of David in 'Shaun of the Dead' by producer Nira Park (who also produced Dylan's show 'Black Books' and Simon's show 'Spaced'.) Pegg claimed he wasn't sure Moran was right for the part at first, but he saw Dylan's audition tape and he "nailed it". (Dylan himself wasn't intially sure he was right for the part either and actually suggested they cast comedian David Walliams instead.) Has written numerous articles for The Irish Times newspaper. Is very well-read. Some of his favourite authors include Don DeLillo, SJ Perelmam and JB Morton. Made his US television debut on June 25 2004 on "The Late Show With David Letterman". 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. Went to school with fellow Irish comic (and Perrier Award winner) Tommy Tiernan. 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.