Simon Bird

Simon Bird may look like a fresh-faced student of comedy but he is no spring chicken when it comes to the genre. Having managed to safely navigate his way from acting in a role way younger than he actually is in The Inbetweeners to one only mildly younger in Friday Night Dinner, Bird has avoided being stuck with an unwanted teenage badge, and we can expect to see him in much more sitcom comedy over the coming decade.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves already, as Bird has been heavily involved in the comedy scene since university. He has entered the Chortle Student Comedy Awards no less than four times, and been disqualified once between 2005 and 2008.

Bird has also clocked up some serious Edinburgh miles. While at Birkbeck College Bird set up the sketch comedy group The House of Windsor with fellow future Inbetweener Joe Thomas and Jonny Sweet and took the show to Edinburgh, garning rave reviews in the process.