Jon Plowman has been a producer at the BBC since 1980, when he produced Russell Harty's chat show Harty. He moved on to executive producing at the BBC in 1986, working on sketch show A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, and became head of comedy entertainment in 1994, mainly responsible for sketch shows. He was responsible for producing and commissioning programmes produced in-house at the BBC, of which the greatest successes include The Office and French and Saunders. (A full list of programmes he has produced is below). He became head of comedy in October 2005, and now oversees the BBC's in-house comedy production, but no longer commissions programmes. In June 2007, Plowman announced he was quitting his post at the BBC after 27 years. He decided to become a free-lance producer for other shows and hoped to carry on his relationship with the BBC, continuing to create programs "for them and elsewhere."blank">http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/17270/head-of-comedy-plowman-to-leave-bbc

He was educated in _Welwyn Garden City and at University of Oxford, where he made friends with others who went on to establish successful careers in comedy. One, Mel Smith, directed Plowman in a production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. After Oxford, Plowman followed Smith to the Royal Court Theatre, where he met the director Lindsay Anderson. Plowman worked in theatre for a while, then joined Granada TV.

In December 2003, The Observer named him in its list of the 50 funniest or most influential people in British Comedy. On 14 March 2006, he was honoured with the Judges' Award for outstanding contribution to British television at the Royal Television Society awards.

In 2000, Jon Plowman was made BBC Head of Comedy.