Live At The Marquee - A Chancer's Guide to Dara O'Briain

Dara O'Briain takes to the stage at Live At The Marquee tonight.

Dara O'Briain was born in Bray, Co. Wicklow in 1972. He attended University College Dublin, where he studied mathematics and theoretical physics.

After leaving college, Ó Briain began working at RTÉ as a children's TV presenter. At this time, he also began performing his first stand-up gigs on the Irish comedy circuit.

Ó Briain spent three years presenting Echo Island, the bilingual (Irish and English) children's programmeon RTÉ. His wit truely came to the fore as a team captain on the panel show Don't Feed The Gondolas which was hosted by Seán Moncrieff between 1998 and 2000.

O'Briain became a regular at the Kilkenny Cat Laughs and the Edinburgh Festival, as well as making one notable appearance at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal in 2002. Around this time, Ó Briain presented the weekend game show It's a Family Affair on RTÉ. It was the first time he worked with former Channel 4 commissioning editor Séamus Cassidy. They later set up the production company Happy Endings Productions, and together they produced (and Ó Briain presented) the chat show Buried Alive and most famously in Ireland, The Panel from 2003 to 2006.

The Panel was nominated for the Best Entertainment show at the IFTAs. The show has a rotating cast of panellists, usually comedians, discussing current affairs and events. Weekly guests were also welcomed on the show. Colin Murphy, Ed Byrne, Neil Delamere, Andrew Maxwell and Mairéad Farrell made regular appearances on the popular TV Show.

In 2005, Ó Briain's show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the biggest selling solo comedy show of the festival. Since 2006, Ó Briain has starred in the BBC's Three Men in a Boat series, with Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath. Ó Briain has also been an extensive newspaper columnist, with pieces published in many national papers in both the UK and Ireland, from The Sunday Times to The Daily Telegraph. On 6 November 2012, Ó Briain began presenting a series called Dara Ó Briain's Science Club, in which he and other celebrities discuss science issues.

O'Briain's successful UK Stand Up tours have been huge hits, with Live at the Theatre Royal, Dara Ó Briain Talks Funny – Live in London, This Is the Show and Craic Dealer all being released on DVD.

Ó Briain married his wife Susan, a surgeon, in 2006 they live in West London with their two children. He was best man at his best friend Ed Byrne's wedding; Byrne later returned the favour.

This will be O'Briain's second year performing at Live At The Marquee.