Simon Bird

Simon Bird
Bird at the Baftas TV Awards 2010
Born	Simon Antony Bird (1984-08-19) 19 August 1984 (age 32) Guildford, Surrey, England
Alma mater	University of Cambridge Birkbeck, University of London
Occupation	Actor, Comedian
Years active	2000–present
Spouse(s)	Lisa Owens (m. 2012)
Children	1

Simon Antony Bird (born 19 August 1984) is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Adam Goodman in the Channel 4 comedy Friday Night Dinner and Will McKenzie in The Inbetweeners.

Bird was born in Guildford, Surrey as the third of four children of Claremont McKenna College Professor Graham Bird and Heather née Gage.

Bird was educated at Cranmore School, West Horsley, the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read English. At Cambridge, Bird was the President of the Footlights, the university's sketch and theatrical group.

While completing an MA in cultural and critical studies at Birkbeck College, Bird set up the sketch comedy group "The House of Windsor" with former Footlights contemporaries Joe Thomas (who plays Simon Cooper in The Inbetweeners) and Jonny Sweet. They performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007 and in 2008 with a show called The Meeting, described as a site-specific comedy installation set in an actual boardroom, which received national media attention and a clutch of five-star reviews. Bird and Thomas were also regulars on series 1 and 2 of The Weekly Show, a podcast for Channel 4 Radio (2006-7).

Bird also performs stand-up comedy and took part in Chortle's national student comedy awards in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, coming second in his final attempt. (He was a finalist in 2006, and was disqualified for deliberately breaking the rules in 2007.)

In 2008, Bird was cast in E4's teen comedy The Inbetweeners as Will McKenzie, along with Joe Thomas. He won the 2008 British Comedy Award for Best Male Newcomer and the 2009 British Comedy Award for Best Actor. He was also nominated for Best Comedy Performance at the 2008 Royal Television Society Awards, and Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme at the 2009 BAFTA Awards.