O'Briain is simply a-Dara-ble

Irish stand-up comedian and game-show host Dara O'Briain has become one of the most acclaimed comedians working in Britain today.

He has been described as someone who "produces laughs like a magician produces rabbits from a hat."

Famous for his appearances on Have I Got News For You, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and QI, O'Briain is perhaps best known for being the presenter of satirical quiz Mock the Week.

Born in County Wicklow, O'Briain started out as a children's presenter on Irish television.

His career as a stand-up comic saw him tour Europe, Asia and Australia, as well as making a memorable appearance at the 2003 Montreal Just For Laughs Festival.

His big break came as a guest on Have I Got News For You, a show he has returned to as guest host on four occasions.

He won the 2004 Best Headliner prize at the Chortle Comedy Awards for Live Comedy and is a regular at the Edinburgh Festival.

More recently, he starred alongside fellow comics, Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath, in Three Men in a Boat - a show based on their experience of rowing up the River Thames - which was so well received that Three Men in Another Boat soon followed.

He has been a guest on Room 101 with Paul Merton and tours the UK and Ireland extensively.

O'Briain is also a newspaper columnist and has appeared on the panel of the radio quiz show Just a Minute.

To many people, he is a rising star of TV and comedy. To O'Briain himself, he is simply Ditzy Boomhaha.

His latest tour comes to the Birmingham Hippodrome on March 16 and 17.

By Winston Brown