Marek Ryan Larwood (born 2 June 1976) is an English comedian, actor and YouTuber. He is best known for the

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

sketch show ''

Rush Hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...

'' and for being one third of the comedy trio '' We Are Klang''.

Early life

Born in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, Larwood lived in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

before moving to the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

. His forename is of Polish origin, as his mother had seen a 1975 documentary about a Polish schoolboy with a heart defect, who was looking forward to an operation. The operation was unsuccessful, and Marek's mother thought to name her son after the Polish schoolboy.

Career

Stand-up comedy

Larwood won the Laughing Horse New Act of The Year competition in 2003. He was part of the comic trio We Are Klang, along with Steve Hall and Greg Davies. They took their show ''Klangbang'' to the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe festival and were nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.Bunbury, Stephanie (2007)
Insults in flight as Klang mixes it
, ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', 4 April 2007, retrieved 2010-11-22 He performed his debut solo show, ''Typecast'', in 2012.

Television

Larwood has appeared in the sitcom '' Extras'' and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

sci-fi sitcom '' Hyperdrive''. He featured as a main cast member of the first series of the

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

show '' Sorry, I've Got No Head'', but was absent from the second, meaning some of his characters were recast. He made a surprise return for the third series, but did not reclaim his original roles except for the 'Advice Man'. In 2007, he appeared as Giacomo Casanova and Milo of Croton in CBBC's ''Ed and Oucho''. Larwood appeared in the 2008

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

sketch show ''Laura, Ben & Him'', with Laura Solon and Ben Willbond.Plunkett, John (2007)
ITV2 picks up Solon sketch show
, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 10 October 2007, retrieved 2010-11-22 He appeared in the sitcom adaptation of '' We Are Klang'', the sketch show ''

'', and the

improv Improv may refer to: *Improvisation, an act of spontaneous invention **Improvisational theatre (includes improvisational comedy) **Musical improvisation Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of im ...

game show '' Fast and Loose''. From 2012 to 2014, he was a member of the

hidden camera comedy show '' Impractical Jokers UK''. He plays pub regular Lee in Romesh Ranganathan's sitcom '' The Reluctant Landlord''. Larwood appeared in ITV2's celebrity comedy show '' CelebAbility'', alongside comedian Iain Stirling and Scarlett Moffat.

Films

Larwood made a

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

as an amateur magician in the 2007 film '' Magicians''.

Online

Larwood has regularly made content on YouTube. He has both his personal channel with sketches, and ''The Cool Dudes Walking Club'', where he chronicles walks around the UK. He also presented a weekly podcast on classic and current films, '' Film Fandango,'' with fellow comedian David Reed and Danielle Ward. He then presented his own podcast ''Marek Makes a Movie''.

Credits

Television

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larwood, Marek English stand-up comedians English male television actors 1976 births Living people Male actors from Norwich English male comedians Actors from the London Borough of Haringey Comedians from Norwich Male actors from London Comedians from the London Borough of Haringey People from Muswell Hill