20 Facts About Dom Joly

Dominic John Romulus Joly is an English comedian and writer.

Dom Joly is best known as the star of Trigger Happy TV, a hidden camera prank show that was broadcast in over 70 countries worldwide.

Dominic John Romulus Joly was born in Beirut on 15 November 1967, to British parents John Joly and his second wife, Yvonne.

Dom Joly's parents were "quite detached" and he was raised with a nanny; his parents separated when Dom Joly was 18, and for 20 years he had little contact with his father, reconciling in his old age prior to the latter's death in 2011.

Dom Joly has a half-brother and two half-sisters resident in Lebanon and England, to whom he is not close.

Dom Joly then moved to England, where he was educated at Dragon School in Oxford and Haileybury College near Hertford.

Dom Joly later attended the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Dom Joly speaks Arabic, Czech, and French in addition to English.

In 2018 Dom Joly told the Sunday People that when he was at school in Beirut in the 1970s a fellow pupil brought a severed head to show his class.

In 2009, Dom Joly fronted a show titled Made in Britain, shown on the Blighty channel in the UK.

In 2016 Dom Joly was marooned on a desert island for two weeks for Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls.

In 2020 Dom Joly walked the Sultans Trail from Belgrade to Istanbul for the BBC One series Pilgrimage.

Dom Joly was a columnist for The Independent on Sunday from 2003 until the paper closed in 2016.

Dom Joly was thought to be the writer of a spoof column in The Independent and then i called "Cooper Brown: He's out there", and later confirmed in his autobiography that this was the case.

In 2010, Dom Joly published a travel book called The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the World's Most Unlikely Holiday Destinations, investigating dark tourism.

Dom Joly published his second travel book, Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, in 2012.

In 2019 Dom Joly published the travel book The Hezbollah Hiking Club, in which he documented his walk across Lebanon with two friends.

Dom Joly was a special correspondent for the Independent at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

On 29 June 2018, Dom Joly released the first episode of his comedy podcast, Earworm.

Dom Joly has spoken about his struggles with anxiety and depression.