Mark Watson

Mark Andrew Watson (born 13 February 1980) is an English comedian, novelist and producer.

Watson was born in Bristol to a Welsh mother and English father.

He has younger twin sisters and a brother, Paul.

He attended Bristol Grammar School, where he won a "Gabbler of the Year" award.

He went on to study English at Queens' College, Cambridge, graduating with first class honours.

At university he was a member of the Footlights and contemporary of Stefan Golaszewski, Tim Key and Dan Stevens.

He was part of the revue which was nominated for the Best Newcomer category in the Perrier Comedy Awards at the 2001 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and also co-directed a revue with Key.

Although not brought up in Wales, Watson used to deliver his act with a common Welsh accent which is not quite his own.

He adopted it when he started stand-up comedy saying that it made him "more comfortable to be talking in a voice that I didn't quite recognise as my own".

He has since reverted to his own accent.

The first of these was performed at the 2004 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which lasted 24 hours.

At the end of the show he proposed to his girlfriend Emily Howes, who accepted.

These shows have featured guest appearances from other performers such as Tim Key, Tim Minchin, Adam Hills, Daniel Kitson, David O'Doherty, Brendon Burns and John Dorney as the balladeer.

Watson has appeared regularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning the first ever Panel Prize at the if.comeddies in 2006 and being nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2005 Perrier Comedy Awards.

His other awards include the Time Out Critics' Choice Award 2006 and a Barry Award nomination for best show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival 2006.

Watson has performed several unusual shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and Melbourne Festivals, including marathon shows lasting 24 hours or more.

At the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Watson hosted a literary workshop-cum-interactive comedy show entitled Mark Watson, And His Audience, Write A Novel.

The aim was to write, by the end of August, a novel begun from scratch and woven entirely from audience suggestions, with another 2,000 words or so added each day.

The novel was not finished within the month.

At the 2007 Fringe, Watson hosted a panel show We Need Answers with Alex Horne and Tim Key.

This saw 16 comedians take part in a knock out quiz where all the questions and answers came from text service Any Question Answered.

Paul Sinha won the competition, beating Josie Long in the final.

We Need Answers returned in 2008 with fewer rounds, Josie Long emerged as winner, beating Sinha in the semi-final and Kristen Schaal in the final.

Watson performed his final 24-hour Fringe show at the 2009 festival along with his "Earth Summit" and his "Edit".

The Earth Summit was Watson's version of the Al Gore talk about world pollution and global warming and the Edit was a compilation of Watson's fringe shows to date, made particularly for those who had not seen him perform there.

A three-episode run of We Need Answers began on BBC Four on 12 February 2009, based on the Edinburgh Fringe show of the same name.

As with the live show, Watson co-hosted with Tim Key and Alex Horne.

A further 13 episodes were broadcast later in 2009.

Guests for the series included Germaine Greer, Michael Rosen and Jilly Goolden.

Watson's debut DVD, The Mark Watson Edit, was initially due for release on 15 November 2010.

In 2010 ITV4 commissioned Mark Watson Kicks Off, a sports panel show, hosted by Watson, where each week with three celebrities taking part in numerous rounds including "Beat the Best" where Watson takes on a sporting champion but with a twist and "I'm not a successful sports star but I'm related to someone who is" where the three celebrities ask questions to a guest who is related to a sports star.

However, Watson was forced to shelve the project and a new DVD recording was released on 28 November 2011, entitled Mark Watson Live.

In 2011, Watson hosted a pilot for an improvisational comedy show called Improvisation My Dear Mark Watson.

The one-off episode was commissioned and broadcast by Dave, who chose not to create a full series.

The pilot aired on 9 July.

In 2012, Watson starred with Micky Flanagan and host Mark Dolan as a captain in the Channel 4 panel programme The Mad Bad Ad Show.

Watson made occasional appearances on BBC Two's comedy panel show Mock the Week; he has also been a panellist on BBC music quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks four times—once as guest captain and once as presenter—in addition to appearing on the topical panel show Have I Got News for You.

He has appeared on the panel shows Would I Lie to You?, QI, Argumental and Richard Osman's House of Games.

Watson appeared as a talking head in Armando Iannucci's spoof documentary series Time Trumpet.

In 2019, Watson staged a 26.2-hour live show to coincide with the London Marathon, and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 he hosted two 24-hour "Watsonathon" events on the Twitch streaming platform.