31 Facts About Rhod Gilbert

Rhodri Paul Gilbert was born on 18 October 1968 and is a Welsh comedian and television and radio presenter who was nominated in 2005 for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award.

In September 2014, Rhod Gilbert started presenting the BBC Two panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, ending a run of five series without a permanent host, although the show ended in May 2015.

Rhod Gilbert was born in Carmarthen, Wales, one of three siblings to two teacher parents, his father hailing from Ebbw Vale and his mother from Abertillery.

Rhod Gilbert attended Maridunum Comprehensive School and went on to study languages at Exeter University.

Rhod Gilbert later worked as a qualitative researcher for several market research agencies in London.

Rhod Gilbert got into professional comedy in 2002, after taking part in the Amused Moose Stand Up and Deliver course, but only "thanks to a girlfriend's constant nagging".

Many of Rhod Gilbert's stories are drawn from real life events, and his life in the wholly fictionalised village of Llanbobl.

In 2008, Rhod Gilbert wrote a sitcom about life in Llanbobl, which featured on BBC Radio 2.

Rhod Gilbert's 2008 show, Rhod Gilbert and the Award-Winning Mince Pie, saw Gilbert question his sanity, his career and his life after suffering a mental breakdown brought on by the award-winning mince pie at a motorway services.

Rhod Gilbert has appeared five and three times respectively on the BBC Two panel shows QI and Mock the Week, and presented two episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks in October 2009 and December 2011 before becoming the permanent presenter for the final series of its original BBC run.

Rhod Gilbert hosted three episodes of Have I Got News for You in April 2011, October 2017, and May 2018; has appeared as a guest on Channel 4's 8 out of 10 Cats; and wrote and narrated BBC Three's 2007 Goals Galore, Pranks Galore, Football Gaffes Galore and TV Gaffes Galore programmes.

Rhod Gilbert was Paramount Comedy's continuity writer and announcer between September 2004 and October 2005, providing end-credit voice-overs for their peak time programme schedule.

In December 2008, Rhod Gilbert was signed for a campaign to promote tourism in Wales and became the official Voice of Wales for the country's tourist board, fronting the 2009 Visit Wales television advertising.

In November 2008, Rhod Gilbert appeared on the BBC's Live at the Apollo as a guest.

On 6 June 2009 Rhod Gilbert appeared as the headline act on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow on BBC One, and as a guest on 8 out of 10 Cats on 17 July 2009.

Rhod Gilbert provided voiceover material for the sketch show Walk on the Wild Side.

In January 2012, Rhod Gilbert began filming series 3 of the show.

In September 2014, Rhod Gilbert started presenting the BBC Two panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, ending a run of five series without a permanent host.

In September 2018, Rhod Gilbert appeared as a contestant of the 7th series of Taskmaster alongside James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Kerry Godliman and Phil Wang.

In November 2021, Rhod Gilbert was a guest presenter for BBC's DIY SOS: Children in Need 2021.

In 2006, Rhod Gilbert hosted the BBC Radio Wales comedy panel show Jest a Minute, live from The Comedy Store in London.

The second series of Jest a Minute was recorded in late 2008 in Cardiff's Glee Club, hosted by Rhod Gilbert and featuring regular team captains Chris Corcoran and Lloyd Langford, and guests from the comedy circuit such as Elis James, Greg Davies, Lucy Porter and Jon Richardson.

In December 2008, a pilot of his sitcom Rhod Gilbert's Leaving Llanbobl was broadcast on BBC Radio 2; the sitcom was written and starred Gilbert and Greg Davies, with additional writing by Sian Harries.

Rhod Gilbert has hinted in interviews that the sitcom is likely to move to TV when it is completed as he found that he was "seeing it" as he wrote it.

Rhod Gilbert has made several appearances on the BBC Radio 4 comedy program The Unbelievable Truth.

In 2011, he recorded a radio show for BBC Radio 2 called Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs with comedians Lloyd Langford, Greg Davies and Sarah Millican.

From 2006 to 2019, Gilbert fronted his own radio show, The Rhod Gilbert Radio Show, broadcast by BBC Radio Wales on Saturdays between 11:30am and 1:30 pm, often co-hosted by fellow Welsh Comedians Bennett Arron, Lloyd Langford or Chris Corcoran.

Rhod Gilbert married his long-term girlfriend, writer and comedian Sian Harries, in August 2013.

In 2021 Rhod Gilbert took part in a documentary series about the stigma of male infertility.

In July 2022, Rhod Gilbert announced he had been diagnosed with stage four cancer and was being treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, of which he is a patron.

Rhod Gilbert stated his pre-diagnosis symptoms had worsened while fundraising for Velindre in Cuba, where he contracted COVID-19.