Richard Osman

Richard Thomas Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English author, television presenter, producer, novelist, and comedian.

He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show Pointless.

He has presented the BBC Two quiz shows Two Tribes and Richard Osman's House of Games and been a team captain on the comedy panel shows Insert Name Here and The Fake News Show.

He has made appearances on British panel shows including Would I Lie To You? and QI.

Osman worked at Hat Trick Productions before becoming creative director of the television production company Endemol UK, producing shows including Prize Island for ITV and Deal or No Deal for Channel 4.

Richard Thomas Osman was born on 28 November 1970 in Billericay, Essex, to Brenda Wright and David Osman, and grew up in Cuckfield near Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

When Richard Osman was nine years old, his father walked out on the family, which Osman says has created difficulty for the rest of his life.

His mother went to teacher training college but, before she got a full-time job, making money to raise her two children was a challenge.

His elder brother is musician Mat Osman, bass guitarist with the rock band Suede.

Osman attended Warden Park School in Cuckfield.

While still at school, he gained his first broadcasting experience, as a regular contributor to Turn It Up, an open-access music show which went out on Sunday evenings on BBC Radio Sussex (the show was also notable for giving early broadcast experience to BBC news journalist Jane Hill and radio DJ Jo Whiley).

From 1989 to 1992, he studied Politics and Sociology at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a contemporary of Pointless co-presenter Alexander Armstrong, who read English.

Osman worked as executive producer on British game shows, including Channel 4 comedy panel game 8 Out of 10 Cats and satirical comedy 10 O'Clock Live.

Osman acted as script editor for BBC One's Total Wipeout and in 1999, created and wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Boyz Unlimited with David Walliams and Matt Lucas.

In 2005, he co-created and co-wrote the animated Channel 4 sitcom Bromwell High.

He was the creative director at TV company Endemol UK, pitching the idea for Pointless to the BBC, becoming its co-presenter with his former university friend Alexander Armstrong, when it launched in 2009.

From 2009 until 2022, Osman co-presented the BBC One teatime quiz show Pointless with host Alexander Armstrong.

He created the show where he is jokingly known as Armstrong's "pointless friend".

Having previously worked exclusively in behind-the-camera roles, Osman got the job as co-presenter/assistant when he pitched the idea for the show to a panel of BBC daytime heads, taking the role of the assistant in the demonstration.

Osman created the short-lived 2013 ITV gameshow Prize Island.

His other credits include Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Total Wipeout and the game show 24 Hour Quiz.

Osman guest hosted Have I Got News for You in October 2013.

In 2014, Osman began presenting a new BBC Two quiz show called Two Tribes.

From October 2014, he guest-presented episodes of The One Show.

A second series began airing in February 2015.

Beginning in 2016, he was a team captain on the BBC Two comedy panel show Insert Name Here, hosted by Sue Perkins.

In February and December 2016, he presented Dragons' Den: Pitches to Riches, two special episodes which looked back over the past thirteen series of Dragons' Den on BBC Two.

Since 2016, Osman has presented Child Genius on Channel 4.

A second series was commissioned to begin airing in January 2017.

He appeared on the telethon Red Nose Day 2017 with The World Cup of Biscuits 2017.

This involved polling with Twitter to find the best British biscuit.

In April 2017 he appeared in the first episode of the third series of Murder in Successville.

In 2017, Osman began hosting his show Richard Osman's House of Games.

Each weekday, four panelists compete in general knowledge tests in a variety of entertaining games.

Six series of the show have been made.

He is the author of the bestselling crime novels The Thursday Murder Club (2020), The Man Who Died Twice (2021), as well as The Bullet That Missed (2022) and The Last Devil To Die (2023).

Osman left Endemol in 2020.

In 2020, Osman created a spin-off show titled House of Games Night, which aired on BBC One on Friday nights.

On 8 April 2022, Osman announced he would be leaving Pointless, after 1,300 episodes across 30 series.

After his The Thursday Murder Club series received critical acclaim, he wished to spend more time as an author.