Dylan Moran, a renowned Irish comedian, was born in Navan, County Meath, in 1971. At the age of 16, he left school without any qualifications and quickly became drawn to stand-up comedy. In 1992, he made his debut at the Comedy Cellar in Dublin, a pivotal moment in his career.
A year later, Moran won the prestigious "So You Think You're Funny" award at the Edinburgh Festival, which led to the development of his comedy routines into a one-man show, "Gurgling for Money." This show earned him the Perrier Comedy Award in 1996 and was subsequently taken on a nationwide tour of the UK.
Moran's exposure at the Edinburgh Festival also led to him being programmed at international stand-up comedy festivals worldwide. He continued to hone his craft, writing and performing for British television.
In 1998, Moran starred in the BBC sitcom "How Do You Want Me?" and, in 2000, he was commissioned by Channel Four for the sitcom "Black Books." He wrote and starred in three six-episode series of this comedy, co-starring popular British stand-up comedian Bill Bailey.
"Black Books" sees Moran play a character close to his stand-up comedy persona: an unsociable misanthrope with a great love of wine and razor-sharp put-downs of all things human. The show's surreal views on everyday things and human behavior are reminiscent of his stand-up persona's dealings with these topics.
In the late 1990s, Moran also began to work on a film acting CV, appearing in movies such as "Notting Hill" (1999),"The Actors" (2003),"Shaun of the Dead" (2004),and "Tristram Shandy" (2005).
Moran's live stand-up comedy is unique in that it merges two strands of stand-up that seemed incompatible for a long time: sharp observational humor and surreal and fantastical language-based absurdity. His comedy is characterized by a use of language similar to that of Eddie Izzard and Ross Noble, with surreal associative leaps between observations and fantasies.
Moran is very reluctant to give interviews on his personal life and career, a fact parodied in a staged interview inter-cut with the recording of his live stand-up show, "Monster," on its DVD release.
