Richard Osman Biography

Richard Thomas Osman was born on November 28, 1970, in Billericay, Essex, England, United Kingdom, to David Osman and Brenda Wright.

He was raised in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. Richard’s mother, Brenda, worked as a teacher. Richard’s father abandoned the family when Richard was around 9 or 10, and this affected Richard tremendously.

Richard’s older brother, Mat Osman, grew up to be a bass guitarist who founded the Britpop/rock band Suede (also known as London Suede).

Richard initially attended the Warden Park School in Cuckfield. While in school, he contributed regularly to Turn It Up, a Saturday-evening music show on BBC Radio Sussex.

From 1989 to 1992, Richard studied politics and sociology at Trinity College, Cambridge. There, he met his future Pointless co-host Alexander Armstrong, who studied English Literature.

Richard Osman started his career as an executive producer, working on numerous British game shows, such as Deal or No Deal, the Channel 4 show 8 out of 10 Cats, and the comedy 10 O'Clock Live. Some of the other notable shows he has produced are If I Ruled the World (1998–1999), Ban This Filth (2004), and You Have Been Watching (2009–2010).

In 1999, he wrote the Channel 4 show Boyz Unlimited, with Matt Lucas and David Walliams. In 2005, he co-wrote the animated sitcom Bromwell High for Channel 4. He was a script editor for BBC One's Total Wipeout (2009–2011).

He initially worked at Hat Trick Productions and then joined Endemol as a creative director. During that time, he pitched the concept for the teatime quiz show Pointless to BBC. While pitching, he assumed the role of the assistant. The BBC executives were extremely happy with his delivery and suggested that he take up the role permanently.

The show Pointless was launched in 2009, and Richard began co-hosting it with his former university pal Alexander Armstrong. It featured him as Alexander’s “pointless friend.”

Richard Osman appeared as a guest panelist on the show Have I Got News for You multiple times, from 2012 to 2019. He has also been part of Would I Lie to You?

In 2012, Richard created and hosted the World Cup of Crisps. He also created the ITV game show Prize Island (2013) and the show 24 Hour Quiz.

In 2014, he appeared as a host on the BBC Two quiz show Two Tribes. The second season of the show was aired from February 2015. He has also guest-hosted a few episodes of The One Show since 2014.

In 2016, Richard became a team captain on Insert Name Here, a BBC Two comedy panel show. The show was hosted by Sue Perkins. The second season of the show was aired from January 2017.

He also participated in the second season of Taskmaster, which was hosted by Greg Davies, in 2016. In February and December that year, Richard was seen as a host on Dragons' Den: Pitches to Riches, which consisted of two special episodes that offered a glimpse into the 13 seasons of Dragons' Den on BBC Two that had been aired till then. He also began hosting the Channel 4 show Child Genius that year.

Richard was also seen on Let's Play Darts and has hosted the podcast The Birthday Game. Richard appeared on The World Cup of Biscuits 2017, which was part of the telethon Red Nose Day 2017. The project included a Twitter poll to locate the best British biscuit.

In April 2017, Richard was seen in the first episode of season 3 of Murder in Successville. The same year, he started hosting the show Richard Osman's House of Games, five days a week. The show featured four panelists competing in general knowledge tests through various games. The show declared a winner every Friday. It was renewed for two more seasons.

He has appeared as a guest on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue six times. He has also been featured as a guest on QI. Some of the other notable shows he has been part of are Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two (2012–2016), Room 101 (2014, guest), Danger Mouse (2015, voice role), The Last Leg (2016–2017, guest), and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (2020, celebrity contestant). He was also part of the panel of Channel 4’s coverage of the 2017 U.S. general election.

Richard’s first novel was a murder mystery titled The Thursday Murder Club, published in September 2020. It was set in Kent and tracked the lives of four retirees who got together to solve cold cases. Viking Press of the Penguin Random House acquired the rights to the novel and a sequel (to be released in 2021), for a seven-figure amount, in a 2019 auction of publishers.

He is also looking forward to a TV adaptation of his debut novel and has declared that the book’s movie rights have been bought by Steven Spielberg.

He has also written a few other books, such as The 100 Most Pointless Things in the World (co-written with Alexander, 2012), A Pointless History of the World (co-written with Alexander, 2016), The World Cup of Everything: Bringing the Fun Home (2017), and Richard Osman's House of Games (co-written with Alan Connor, 2019).

Richard holds a Guinness World Record, which he created on Pointless. Richard was apparently given one minute to name as many countries as he could, after their capital cities were mentioned. Though he failed in the first attempt, he eventually identified 30 countries in 60 seconds.

On December 6, 2011, Richard Osman won Heat magazine’s “Weird Crush of the Year” award through a public poll.

Richard Osman suffers from an eye condition called nystagmus, which causes reduced vision. He thus learns his scripts by heart, as he finds it difficult to read an autocue.

Richard has two children, a daughter named Ruby (born in 1998) and a son named Sonny (born in 2000), from his marriage to his ex-wife. Richard and his former wife divorced in 2007. However, they have decided to co-parent their children, as Richard does not wish his children to go through the same trauma that he had gone through when his father had left his family.

Following his divorce, Richard dated Absolute radio host/DJ and InStyle deputy editor Emily Dean for a while. In February 2019, about 2 years after Richard and Emily broke up, Richard was spotted with jazz singer Sumudu Jayatilaka, when they were on their way home from a sports quiz. Back then, they had been dating for a few months.

Richard and Sumudu had met through common friends in 2018. The couple, however, split in April 2020.

Richard is known for his extraordinary height of 6 feet 7 inches. He is thus taller than basketball icon Michael Jordan.

He has a lifelong crush on Kim Wilde, the pop legend of the 1980s. Richard is also a big fan of Fulham FC. He loves listening to the music of TLC, Destiny's Child, and R.E.M.

Richard once revealed that someone had once proposed to him on Twitter.

In 2013, in an interview with The Telegraph, Richard said that he wished to participate in a naked calendar shoot with the theme “nude geeks” someday.