Greg Davies Biography: In His Own Words – Exclusive Video, News, Photos

Greg Davies is a Welsh comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his roles in the television series Taskmaster, We Are Klang, The Inbetweeners, Cuckoo, Man Down and The Cleaner.

GREG DAVIES BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Greg Davies was born on May 14, 1968 (Greg Davies: age 54) in St Asaph, Wales to Bob Davies and Pauline Davies. Though Davies’ Welsh parents were living in England at the time of his birth, his father drove his mother across the Welsh border in order ensure Davies would be eligible to play for the Welsh national rugby team.

Davies grew up in the English town of Wem, where he attended Thomas Adams School. Davies then studied English and Drama at Brunel University in London.

Before he began his acting career, Davies taught Drama at a number of English secondary schools for thirteen years. When talking about why Davies switched from teaching to comedy, he revealed to uInterview that teaching had never been what he wanted to do.

Davies told uInterview founder Erik Meers, “I was a teacher for thirteen years, and that’s probably my answer to your question of why I’m a comedian. I was a teacher for thirteen long, lonely years… I guess I was so pleased to be doing anything else that I threw myself into it with gusto,” the comedian said. “And, thankfully, teaching is behind me now forever. They wouldn’t have me back anyway cause I’ve said so many mean things on stage about it. Throughout my teaching career I longed to be a comedian, and I didn’t have the courage to do it. And then I got to a certain age and went, ‘You better try doing this before you’re really old.’ And I haven’t looked back since, I just keep running.”

GREG DAVIES BIOGRAPHY: CAREER IN MOVIES & TELEVISION

In 2005, Davies played cricketer W. G. Grace in advertisements for Channel 4’s coverage of The Ashes, a cricket series played between England and Australia.

In 2007, Davies was nominated three times for the Chortle Awards for his sketch and stand-up comedy.

In 2008, Davies began his work on The Inbetweeners. On the sitcom, which follows a group of suburban teenagers, Davies plays teacher Mr. Gilbert. Davies also portrayed Mr. Gilbert in The Inbetweeners Movie and The Inbetweeners 2.

In 2010, Davies’ first touring standup show, Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog, was nominated for the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

In 2012, Davies starred as Ken Thompson in the sitcom Cuckoo, for which he was nominated for the award for Best TV Comedy Actor at the British Comedy Awards.

Beginning in October 2013, Davies starred in the series Man Down, in which he plays Dan, a man who hates his job as a teacher. Davies himself worked as a teacher before beginning his acting career, and the classroom used in Man Down is actually the same one that Davies taught in at Sandhurst School. Man Down ran for four seasons from 2013 to 2017.

Also in 2013, Davies went on tour with his second stand-up show, The Back of My Mum’s Head.

In 2017, Davies recorded a Netflix standup special at the Hammersmith Apollo in London during his Magnificent Beast tour in the United Kingdom. The special You Magnificent Beast was released in 2018 on the streaming platform.

In 2021, Davies both wrote and starred in the series The Cleaner for the BBC One. The show follows Davies as a government cleaner assigned to clean up all traces of death from violent crime scenes.

GREG DAVIES BIOGRAPHY: ‘TASKMASTER’

In 2015, Davies began to host the television game show Taskmaster.

While speaking about the show, the creator and fellow presenter Alex Horne explained Taskmaster to uInterview by saying, “It’s a very simple premise, where we have five comedians doing funny things to impress Greg [Davies], who is the Taskmaster,” Horne said. “But we take it very seriously, despite the fact that the tasks that they have to do are incredibly inane. And it’s improvised and there’s no scripts and it brings the best out of the funniest people.”

Speaking to uInterview, Davies added in about how difficult he found the premise of the game to be. Davies said, “What looks like it would be very straight forward from the comfort of your chair at home, in the studio, as you see from the absolute collapses that occur, it’s not that straight forward under pressure.”

The show has aired 13 seasons, and is currently streaming for free on Pluto TV.

GREG DAVIES BIOGRAPHY: PERSONAL LIFE

Davies currently lives in the Kennington area of London.

Davies was in a relationship with Liz Kendall, the Labour Party politician, for eight years from 2007 to 2015.

Catch the full interview at the top of the page.

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