David Baddiel
b. 1964
David Baddiel was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2019.
David Baddiel was born in the USA in 1964 but has lived entirely in the UK. After obtaining a double first in English from Cambridge, David failed to become the literary academic his teachers and family had hoped, and became instead a comedian, on stage and TV. This took him from clubs in London through to becoming the first comedian to sell out Wembley Arena, along the strange road of having a No. 1 single that became the England football team’s unofficial anthem, the writing of a screenplay for a cult movie, The Infidel, and, most recently, a series of stage shows about his family performed all over the world (and nominated for an Olivier Award). Moreover, he never actually gave up the literary career. He has written four novels for adults – Time For Bed, Whatever Love Means, The Secret Purposes, and The Death of Eli Gold – and five for children: The Parent Agency, The Person Controller, AniMalcolm, Birthday Boy and Head Kid, which have sold over a million copies. His first play, God’s Dice, will open in London in Autumn 2019.
