David Mitchell grew up in Oxford. He was miserable at a Dickensian primary school but happy at Cambridge, where he was president of Footlights and met his comedy partner Robert Webb. Together they have starred in the BAFTA-winning series That Mitchell and Webb Look, Peep Show, Ambassadors and Back
Mitchell has been a team captain on BBC One’s ever popular Would I Lie To You for seventeen series, he has also presented Outsiders for UKTV, Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock Live, hosts Radio 4’s The Unbelievable Truth and has appeared on almost every British TV or radio panel show. In 2016, David starred as William Shakespeare in Ben Elton’s comedy series Upstart Crow across three series for BBC Two. In 2024 David launched a new series for BBC One starring as Ludwig in the series of the same name. That series opened to 10m viewers and became the most popular scripted comedy or drama series launch of the year for the BBC. It was immediately recommissioned for a second series.
David’s memoir Back Story (HarperCollins) was released in 2013 to much critical acclaim. His second book Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse (Guardian Faber) was published in November 2014, followed by Dishonesty is the Second-Best Policy (Guardian Faber) in 2020. These are both a collection of David’s weekly Observer columns, bringing light to the darkness in these dumbfounding times. In 2024 David’s History book Unruly, published by Michael Joseph (Penguin) instantly shot to No.1 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List and Amazon charts where it remained for many weeks.
David’s voice is, of course, very recognisable across a range of work and he recently brought the character of GooGoo to life in the hugely successful Universal Pictures/Illumination feature film Migration.
He has been nominated for, and won, many awards, most notably scooping BAFTA Awards for That Mitchell & Webb Look and Peep Show.