David Baddiel | |
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Baddiel in 2010
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Birth name | David Lionel Baddiel |
Born |
Troy, New York, United States |
28 May 1964
Medium | Television, film, stand-up |
Nationality | British |
Years active | 1984–present |
Genres | Satire, observational comedy |
Subject(s) | Human interaction, sex, football, religion |
Partner(s) |
Morwenna Banks (present) |
Children | 2 |
Notable works and roles |
The Mary Whitehouse Experience Newman and Baddiel in Pieces Fantasy Football League Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned Baddiel's Syndrome The Parent Agency |
David Lionel Baddiel (born 28 May 1964) is an American-born British comedian, novelist and television presenter. He is known for his work alongside Rob Newman in The Mary Whitehouse Experience and partnership with Frank Skinner. Besides comedy, Baddiel is also a published novelist and a screenwriter, author of children's novels The Parent Agency and The Person Controller.
Baddiel was born in Troy, New York, and moved to England with his parents when he was four months old. His father, Colin Brian Baddiel, was a Welsh-born research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 1980s, after which he sold Dinky Toys at Grays Antique Market.
His mother, Sarah, who died in 2014, was a five months old refugee child when she was brought to the United Kingdom in 1939 by her parents after escaping from Nazi Germany, where her father, Ernst, had been stripped of his assets. Soon after their arrival, Ernst was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man for a year. Baddiel is the second of three sons. His parents were both from Jewish families.
Baddiel grew up in Dollis Hill, Willesden, north London. He attended primary school at the North West London Jewish Day School in Brent. After studying at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, an independent school near Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, he studied English at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, and graduated with a double first. He began studies for a PhD in English at University College London but did not complete it.