Dylan Moran (/ˈmɔərən/; born 3 November 1971) is an Irish comedian, writer, actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his sardonic observational comedy, the UK television sitcom Black Books (which he co-wrote and starred in), and his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run. Moran also appeared as one of the two lead characters in the Irish black comedy titled A Film with Me in It in 2008. Moran's most recent film is Calvary, an Irish black comedy drama film written and directed by John Michael McDonagh.He is a regular performer at national and international comedy festivals including 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 comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 14th greatest stand-up comic. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife, Elaine, and two children.
British Academy Television Award for Best Scripted Comedy, British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Newcomer
Nominations
British Comedy Award for the Best TV Comedy Actor
Movies
Shaun of the Dead, Calvary, Run Fatboy Run, Notting Hill, Dylan Moran Live: What It Is, A Film with Me in It, A Cock and Bull Story, The Actors, The Decoy Bride, Good Vibrations, Breakfast Wine, The Cream of Irish Comedy
Star Sign
Scorpio
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Trademark
1
Tousle-haired, world-weary Irishman with ever-present cigarette and glass of wine.
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Quote
1
The characters can't be wittier than people are in real life. They have to be character witty.
2
Showing off seemed to me to be a highly valuable and necessary activity when I was 20.
3
One thing that's coming up a lot is: are you as grumpy as you appear from this Black Books thing.
4
If I hadn't done this I might have ended up digging the roads.
5
I thought The Office was good, though I didn't think of it as a sitcom, just as a very good programme.
6
You try various things when you're growing up. I was an attache in the Foreign Service for a while and then I drove a bulldozer, but neither of those panned out for me so it had to be stand-up.
7
I never thought I want to do anything, really, except not go to work properly and turn up at the same place every day and eat sandwiches in the same canteen, if I can possibly help it, as I don't think I'd be very good at it.
8
I don't want to do the same thing over and over again.
9
I don't really think of myself as an actor.
10
It's true that I have spoken about doing a book before, but then everyone you speak to is planning to write a book.
11
In the same way, there is some creature gnawing away inside of me, urging me to do things in different ways.
12
Black Books adheres to a more old fashioned, traditional sitcom format, which I think works, because in its own way, it's quite theatrical.
13
I'm actually about as famous as a fourth division footballer from the 70s.
14
The truth is that I'm constitutionally incapable of doing an ordinary job.
15
I have a very low level of recognition, which is fine by me.
16
I think a lot of the time you just parody yourself.
17
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.
18
I have no qualifications to do anything else and there weren't any formal application forms you had to fill in for stand-up, so I thought I'd give that a twist.
19
You achieve the surreal jokes through the realism by making it elastic.
20
We are both drawn to surreal situations so the writing was a joy.
21
The trend now is to get away from stage bound sitcoms.
22
Yeah, I think Michael has had to deal with that label of being Michael Caine for a long time.
23
It's its own bioculture, I just leave it alone... we sleep in separate rooms. (On his hair)
24
I don't do drugs. If I want a rush I just get out of a chair when I'm not expecting it.
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Fact
1
The youngest person to win the Perrier Comedy Award in 1996 at the Edinburgh Festival at age 24.
2
Once worked as a florist but quit after a week because he hated the job.
3
After leaving school, it has been said that Moran spent four years unemployed "drinking and writing bad poetry".
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Father of a girl named Siobhan and a boy named Simon.
5
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.
6
He was inspired by Ardal O'Hanlon to start in comedy, when he saw him at Comedy Cellar in Dublin in the early 1990s.
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Went to school with fellow Irish comic (and Perrier Award-winner) Tommy Tiernan.
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Started life as a stand-up comic in 1992 after a visit to the Comedy Cellar in Dublin. Won the prestigious 'So You Think You're Funny?' award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, aged just 21. Won the festivals top prize (The Perrier Award) three years later.
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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.
10
Met his future Black Books (2000) co-star, Bill Bailey, many years earlier, on the UK comedy circuit.
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Made his US television debut, on June 25 2004, on Late Show with David Letterman (1993).
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Made his acting debut in the 1998 BBC series, How Do You Want Me? (1998), opposite Charlotte Coleman.
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Is a fan of the British musician, P.J. Harvey, and often uses her song, "50ft Queenie", as intro music at his shows.
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Has written numerous articles for The Irish Times newspaper.
15
Got married in London on the day of Princess Diana's funeral, in a church just around the corner.
16
Dylan was personally recommended to Simon Pegg for the role of "David" in Shaun of the Dead (2004) by producer Nira Park (who also produced Dylan's show, Black Books (2000) and Simon's show, Spaced (1999)). 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).
17
Called the Perrier Award (which he won in 1996) "a load of media rubbish". He thought fellow comedian (and future Black Books (2000) co-star) Bill Bailey should have won it.
18
Perrier Award for Comedy Winner, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Baton
2016
Short completed
Uncle
2017
TV Series
Marsh
Calvary
2014
Michael Fitzgerald
Rubenesque
2013
TV Movie
Vulff
Breakfast Wine
2013
Short
Brendan
Little Crackers
2012
TV Series
Father
Good Vibrations
2012
Pat
The Decoy Bride
2011
Charley
A Film with Me in It
2008
Pierce
Run, Fatboy, Run
2007
Gordon
Tell It to the Fishes
2006
Short
Finn
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
2005
Dr. Slop
Black Books
2000-2004
TV Series
Bernard Black
Shaun of the Dead
2004
David
The Actors
2003
Tom Quirk
How Do You Want Me?
1998-1999
TV Series
Ian Lyons
Notting Hill
1999
Rufus the Thief
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Dylan Moran: Off the Hook
2015
TV Special documentary
Little Crackers
2012
TV Series written by - 1 episode
Dylan Moran: Yeah, Yeah
2011
Documentary
Aim Low: The Best of Dylan Moran
2010
Video writer
Dylan Moran: What It Is
2009
Video documentary written by
Dylan Moran: Like, Totally
2006
Video documentary written by
BBC America Comedy Live Presents Dylan Moran
2005
TV Special documentary
Dylan Moran: Monster
2004
Video documentary
Black Books
TV Series written by - 12 episodes, 2002 - 2004 by - 6 episodes, 2000 creator - 3 episodes, 2002
Art Department
Title
Year
Status
Character
Dylan Moran: Like, Totally
2006
Video documentary illustrator - uncredited
Dylan Moran: Monster
2004
Video documentary illustrator - uncredited
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Actors
2003
arranger: "Could It Be Love?" / performer: "Could It Be Love?"
$12 Million
