David Lionel Baddiel is an English comedian, presenter, screenwriter, and author.
44 Facts About David Baddiel
2.
David Baddiel is known for his work alongside Rob Newman in The Mary Whitehouse Experience and his comedy partnership with Frank Skinner.
3.
David Baddiel has written the children's books The Parent Agency, The Person Controller, AniMalcolm, Birthday Boy, Head Kid, and The Taylor TurboChaser.
4.
David Lionel Baddiel was born on 28 May 1964 in Troy, New York, the son of a Welsh father and German mother.
5.
David Baddiel moved to England with his family when he was four months old.
6.
David Baddiel's parents were both Jewish: his father, Colin Brian Baddiel, came from a working-class Swansea family and worked as a research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 1980s, after which he sold Dinky Toys at Grays Antique Market.
7.
David Baddiel's mother, Sarah, was born in Nazi Germany; a swastika appeared on her birth certificate.
8.
David Baddiel was five months old when she was taken to England by her parents in 1939 after the family had fled Nazi Germany, where her wealthy father had been stripped of his assets as a victim of Kristallnacht.
9.
David Baddiel had mental health issues, sometimes requiring hospitalisation, for the rest of his life.
10.
David Baddiel grew up in the Dollis Hill area of London alongside his two brothers Ivor and Dan.
11.
David Baddiel attended the North West London Jewish Day School in Brent, and the public school Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree.
12.
David Baddiel studied English at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, and graduated with a double first BA.
13.
David Baddiel began studies for a PhD in English at University College London, but did not complete it.
14.
David Baddiel subsequently met and began sharing a flat with fellow comedian Frank Skinner.
15.
David Baddiel received criticism for his impression of black footballer Jason Lee in Fantasy Football League, which involved him wearing a pineapple on his head and using blackface.
16.
David Baddiel has issued a number of apologies on social media and in an article for The Daily Telegraph, saying it was "part of a very bad racist tradition".
17.
David Baddiel has written four novels: Time for Bed, Whatever Love Means, The Secret Purposes, and The Death of Eli Gold.
18.
David Baddiel wrote The Boy Who Could Do What David Baddiel Liked, a short story published for World Book Day in 2016.
19.
In 2001, David Baddiel wrote and starred in David Baddiel's Syndrome, a sitcom for Sky 1 which starred Morwenna Banks, Stephen Fry and Jonathan Bailey, which ran for fourteen episodes.
20.
David Baddiel wrote the comedy film, The Infidel, starring Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff, Matt Lucas and Miranda Hart.
21.
David Baddiel has since adapted the film into a musical with music by Erran Baron Cohen.
22.
David Baddiel directed the production which ran at London's Theatre Royal Stratford East in late 2014.
23.
In 2004, David Baddiel created and hosted Heresy, a BBC Radio 4 panel show which sees celebrity guests trying to overthrow popular prejudice and received wisdom.
24.
In 2014 David Baddiel created and hosted Don't Make Me Laugh, a new panel show for Radio 4 that tasks guests with talking for as long as possible on obviously humorous subjects without getting laughs.
25.
In 2015, he created and fronted David Baddiel Tries to Understand.
26.
David Baddiel has appeared in shows including Little Britain, Skins, The Life of Rock with Brian Pern and Horrible Histories and is a regular guest on panel shows including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, QI and Alan Davies' As Yet Untitled.
27.
David Baddiel filmed a documentary about his father's dementia, The Trouble with Dad, shown on Channel 4 in 2017.
28.
David Baddiel won one episode and finished fifth out of five in the overall series.
29.
In January 2021, it was announced David Baddiel would appear as a contestant on the 4th series of The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off, which aired in Spring 2021.
30.
In Spring 2016 David Baddiel premiered a new show, My Family: Not the Sitcom, again at the Menier Chocolate Factory; the confessional show tells the true story of David Baddiel's recently deceased mother and dementia-suffering father.
31.
David Baddiel's new show about social media, Trolls: Not The Dolls, tours the UK in 2020.
32.
David Baddiel focuses on the ideas that formed his 2021 book of the same title.
33.
David Baddiel is a Labour Party voter, but does not describe himself as a "Labour supporter".
34.
In March 2018, David Baddiel appeared on Daily Politics, in which he described antisemitism as "sort of invisible" to Corbyn and others on the political left because they are focused on "fighting the good fight against capitalism".
35.
David Baddiel is a patron of Humanists UK and the Campaign Against Living Miserably.
36.
David Baddiel acted as compere for the Stand-Up to Stop Suicide event organised by Claire Anstey and the charity, and has appeared on radio advertisements publicising the issue of young male suicide.
37.
David Baddiel performed a special one-off charity gala of his My Family: Not the Sitcom show at the Vaudeville Theatre, with all proceeds from the evening being split between the Alzheimer's Society, the National Brain Appeal, and the Unforgettable Foundation.
38.
In 2017, it was announced that David Baddiel would take part in Comic Relief's Red Nose Convoy, in which three pairs of celebrities travel in convoy from Kenya to Uganda while delivering aid.
39.
In March 2019, David Baddiel hosted Comic Relief Does University Challenge on BBC One as part of Red Nose Day.
40.
David Baddiel suffers from insomnia, about which he has written guest articles.
41.
David Baddiel is an avid fan of the rock band Genesis and introduced them at their Turn It On Again: The Tour press conference in 2006.
42.
David Baddiel is a fan of the band's former lead singer Peter Gabriel, and a diarist for The Times once incorrectly reported that he had been "loud and offensive" while attending one of Gabriel's concerts, something Baddiel has referred to in his live act.
43.
David Baddiel is a fan of David Bowie and marked Bowie's 65th birthday in 2012 by expressing a desire to see him come out of retirement.
44.
David Baddiel attended the tribute concert to Bowie at London's Union Chapel following Bowie's death in 2016 and addressed the audience, describing Bowie as "the greatest tunesmith we have".