David James Stuart Mitchell (born 14 July 1974) is a British comedian, actor, and writer. He rose to prominence alongside Robert Webb as part of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb. The duo starred in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show, in which Mitchell plays Mark Corrigan. He won the British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy Performance in 2009 for his performance. Mitchell and Webb have written and starred in several sketch shows including Bruiser, The Mitchell and Webb Situation, That Mitchell and Webb Sound, That Mitchell and Webb Look, and Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping. They have also starred in the British version of Apple's "Get a Mac" ad campaign. Their first film, Magicians, was released in 2007. They starred in the short-lived TV series Ambassadors in 2013, and in the Channel 4 comedy-drama Back from 2017 to 2021.
Mitchell starred as Owen in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Think the Unthinkable, as Dr. James Vine in the BBC One sitcom Jam & Jerusalem, and as William Shakespeare in the BBC Two historical comedy Upstart Crow. He has starred in the BBC One detective comedy-drama Ludwig since 2024. He is a frequent participant on panel shows, as a team captain on Would I Lie to You?, the host of The Unbelievable Truth on BBC Radio 4, and the former host of The Bubble and Was It Something I Said?; as well as guesting on other panel shows including QI, The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and Have I Got News for You. He was also a co-host of the comedy news-show 10 O'Clock Live. As a writer, he contributes opinion pieces to the newspapers The Observer and The Guardian.
Early life
David James Stuart Mitchell was born in Salisbury on 14 July 1974, the son of hotel managers Kathryn Grey () and Ian Douglas Mitchell. he considers himself British rather than specifically English. He would explore his ancestry in a 2009 episode of Who Do You Think You Are? and discover his connection to the Gaelic scholars John Forbes and Alexander Robert Forbes. In 1977, when Mitchell was two years old, his parents left their jobs to give lectures on hotel management as this gave them more time with him. He attended the independent private New College School. In a 2006 interview with The Independent, he recalled his childhood dreams: "When I was at school I either wanted to be a comedian-stroke-actor or prime minister. But I didn't admit that to other people, I said I wanted to be a barrister and that made my parents very happy. I didn't admit I wanted to be a comedian until I came to university, met a lot of other people who wanted to be comedians, and realised it was an okay thing to say." From the age of 13, Mitchell was educated at Abingdon School, a public school. Having always been top of the class at primary school and prep school, he realised after moving to Abingdon that there were plenty of people more intelligent than he, so he turned his attention to debating and drama "where [he] had a chance of being the best".
As part of his gap year, he worked as a "general dogsbody" at Oxford University Press, in its English Language teaching division.
He was rejected by Merton College, Oxford, then went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1993, where he studied history. for the 1995–1996 academic year. In his first year at university, he met Robert Webb during rehearsals for a Footlights production of Cinderella in 1993, and the two men soon established a comedy partnership. According to Mitchell, these factors had a detrimental effect on his academic performance at university and he attained a 2:2 in his final exams.