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 and Peep Show.
Mitchell has been a team captain on BBC One’s ever popular Would I Lie To You for ten series, he presented Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock Live, hosts Radio 4’s The Unbelievable Truth and has appeared on pretty much every British TV or radio panel show. In 2016 David starred as William Shakespeare in Ben Elton’s new six part comedy series Upstart Crow for the BBC; we are delighted to announce that it has been commissioned for a second series.
Following the critical success of his memoir Back Story, Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse: And Other Lessons from Modern Life, was published by Guardian Faber in November 2014.
His latest book, Dishonesty is the Second-Best Policy: And Other Rules to Live By was published in September 2020 and attempts to make light of all the darkness in the dumbfounding times we live in.
David writes a weekly column for the Observer.