Robert Webb

Robert Patrick Webb, born 29 September 1972, is an English comedian, actor, and writer. He rose to prominence alongside David Mitchell as part of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb. He is best known for starring as Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show, as well as co-starring in the sketch series That Mitchell and Webb Look. His work spans television, radio, film, and theatre, including roles in the sitcoms The Smoking Room, Blessed, Fresh Meat, The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, and Back.

Webb was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, and was raised on a council estate in Woodhall Spa. He attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Horncastle, where he became interested in drama and poetry and began writing parodies. Following his parents' divorce when he was five, his mother remarried, and he grew up alongside two older brothers and a younger half-sister. After his mother died of breast cancer when he was 17, he moved in with his father and re-sat his A-levels. In 1992, he entered Robinson College, Cambridge, to study English, becoming vice-president of the Cambridge Footlights, where he met David Mitchell in 1993.

The pair formed a comedy partnership, beginning with a 1995 stage show and writing for other performers and programmes before making their television acting breakthrough on the sketch show Bruiser in 2000. They were given their own series, The Mitchell and Webb Situation, in 2001. In 2003, they began starring in Peep Show, which ran for nine series and became the longest-running sitcom in Channel 4 history. The duo expanded their work with the radio show That Mitchell and Webb Sound, its television adaptation That Mitchell and Webb Look, the 2007 film Magicians, the stage tour The Two Faces of Mitchell and Webb, the 2013 series Ambassadors, and the comedy-drama Back from 2017 to 2021.

Beyond his duo work, Webb appeared in the sitcom The Smoking Room and featured in the 2006 film Confetti. He made his West End stage debut in 2008 in Fat Pig. Webb won the 2009 charity competition Let's Dance for Comic Relief and went on to host or narrate series including Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum, Robert's Web, and 10 Things I Hate About. He has been a regular panelist on shows such as Have I Got News for You, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI, Mastermind, Argumental, The Bubble, and Was It Something I Said?. In 2021, he joined the nineteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, but withdrew early following medical advice related to a heart condition.

As a writer, Webb co-authored books with Mitchell and wrote commentary articles for The Telegraph between 2009 and 2011. He published his first solo memoir, How Not to Be a Boy, in 2017, followed by his debut novel, Come Again, in 2020. Webb married comedian Abigail Burdess in December 2006, and they have two daughters. In 2020, Webb underwent emergency heart surgery for a mitral valve prolapse, after which he gave up drinking alcohol completely.