Dylan William Moran ( ; born ) is an Irish comedian, writer, actor and artist. He is best known for his observational comedy, the comedy series Black Books (which he co-wrote and starred in), and his work with Simon Pegg in films such as Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run. He was also one of two lead characters in the Irish black comedy film A Film with Me in It.
He is a regular performer at national and international comedy festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and the Kilkenny Comedy Festival. In 2007, he was voted the 17th greatest stand-up comedian by Channel 4; in the updated 2010 list, he was ranked as the 14th greatest.
Early life
Dylan William Moran was born in 1971 in Navan, County Meath. He attended St Patrick's Classical School, where he experimented early on with stand-up alongside fellow comedians Tommy Tiernan and Hector Ó hEochagáin; he left with his Leaving Certificate at age 16. He has said that he then spent four years unemployed "drinking and writing bad poetry". He worked as a florist at some point, but hated it and quit after a week.
He has said that he was very passionate about rugby and enjoyed watching many games when he was growing up, but has since lost interest and has none in any other sport either. He nonetheless makes an effort to keep somewhat abreast of popular sport, explaining: "otherwise nobody would talk to me, as it's very hard to find anyone else who's not rabid about sport."
Career
Moran came to comedy at age 20 after watching Ardal O'Hanlon and other comedians perform at Dublin's Comedy Cellar, a fifty-seater comedy club with no microphone, in the basement of The International Bar on South Wicklow Street. He began his stand-up there in 1992 and got a good reception. a one-off comedy event, part of the city's European Capital of Culture 2008 celebrations. Between October and December 2008, Moran embarked on What It Is, a new UK tour starting at the Grand Opera House in York, and ending at Oxford's New Theatre. The tour was extended into 2009 and has now been released on DVD.
A compilation DVD of highlights from Moran's three previous stand-up shows was made available in November 2010 called Dylan Moran: Aim Low. Yeah, Yeah, a stand-up tour of Scandinavia, the Baltic states, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK began in April 2011.
In 2012, Moran performed shows in Russia (following two sold-out performances in neighbouring Estonia). The show's promoters indicated that they believed it to be the first time an Irish stand-up had performed live in a Russian venue; his routine mocked Russia's new law banning "homosexual propaganda" and jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
In 2014, Moran wrote a pilot for ABC about "news media and conflict, war zones and cable news". The channel decided not to go ahead with the show but may possibly sell it to another network. The same year he appeared in John Michael McDonagh's film Calvary. The following July he took his stand-up show Off the Hook to South Africa for the first time, performing three sold-out shows at the country's National Arts Festival.
In 2018, Moran took his latest standup show Dr Cosmos on tour, starting with 42 dates in the UK before touring Europe and Australia in 2019. The DVD was released in 2021.
In June 2019, Moran reported he was developing a "small format" show for the BBC. Moran finished the series during the COVID-19 pandemic, when live performances were effectively cancelled. The series, Stuck, starred Moran and Morgana Robinson and was notable for episodes being only fifteen minutes long in keeping with Moran's belief that shorter content is trending. It aired on BBC Two in 2022.
Moran began touring his most recent standup show, We Got This, in November 2021, touring Ireland and the UK in 2022 and Europe, Australia and New Zealand in 2023. In 2025, he made his Shakesperian debut as the fool Touchstone in Ralph Fiennes' production of As You Like It at the Theatre Royal, Bath.
Awards and commendations
At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he won the 'So You Think You're Funny? Award' in 1993, and the Perrier Award in 1996. He later dismissed the latter as "a load of media rubbish," stating Bill Bailey deserved it more.
A popular poll commissioned by Channel 4 ranked him the 14th-greatest comedy stand-up. Moran was declared "the greatest comedian, living or dead" by the French newspaper Le Monde in July 2007. He has also twice won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Situation Comedy, both for Black Books.
Personal life
Moran married his wife Elaine in 1997. They lived in Edinburgh with their two children. In 2022, Moran and Elaine divorced.
Moran quit smoking in 2014 and became teetotal in 2018,
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Role
|-
|1999
|Notting Hill
|Rufus the Thief
|-
|2003
|The Actors
|Tom Quirk
|-
|2004
|Shaun of the Dead
|David
|-
|2005
|A Cock and Bull Story
|Dr Slop
|-
|2006
|Tell It to the Fishes
|Finn
|-
|2007
|Run Fatboy Run
|Gordon
|-
|2008
|A Film with Me in It
|Pierce
|-
|2011
|The Decoy Bride
|Charley
|-
|2012
|Good Vibrations
|Pat
|-
|2014
|Calvary
|Michael Fitzgerald
|-
|2020
|Pixie
|Potential Buyer
|-
|2024
|The Killer's Game
|Father O'Brien
|-
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
|1998–99
|How Do You Want Me?
|Ian Lyons
|
|-
|2000–04
|Black Books
|Bernard Black
|Also creator and writer
|-
|2012
|Little Crackers
|Father
|1 episode, also writer
|-
|2017
|Uncle
|Marsh
|4 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2" |2022
|The Witcher: Blood Origin
|Uthrok One-Nut
|
|-
|Stuck
|Dan
|Lead role, BBC original comedy
|}
Stand-up DVDs
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Title
!Released
!Notes
|-
| Monster – Live
| 15 November 2004
| Live at Dublin's Vicar Street
|-
| Like, Totally... Dylan Moran Live
| 27 November 2006
| Live at London's Hammersmith Apollo
|-
| What It Is – Live
| 23 November 2009
| Live at Sydney's State Theatre
|-
| Aim Low: The Best of Dylan Moran
| 29 November 2010
| Selected scenes from previous three DVDs
|-
| Yeah, Yeah – Live in London
| 14 November 2011
| rowspan="2" | Live at London's Hammersmith Apollo
|-
| Off the Hook
| 30 November 2015
|-
| Dr Cosmos
| 8 November 2021
| Live in Australia
|}
See also
- List of atheists in film, radio, television and theatre
References
External links
- Dylan Moran official website
- Channel 4 interview
- BBC review of Monster tour
- LF Interview during Yeah Yeah tour