Paul James Martin (born 9 July 1957), better known by the stage name Paul Merton, is an English actor, BAFTA award-winning comedian and writer. He is best known as a panellist on the BBC television show Have I Got News for You and Radio 4's Just a Minute, as well as Channel 4's Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the first five series, and as the host of the BBC TV show Room 101 and the ITV improvisation show, Thank God You're Here. His style is characterised by describing extremely improbable scenarios with a straight — even mournful-looking — face. He rapidly grabs hold of any chance to expand on a subject and stretch its credibility to snapping point. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In The Comedian's Comedian, a 2005 Channel 4 poll of fellow comedians, he was voted the 20th funniest comedian in the universe. A 2007 poll saw him voted alongside the likes of Oscar Wilde, Spike Milligan, Noel Coward and Winston Churchill as one of the ten greatest wits ever.
Paul Merton: The Series is a British sketch show that aired on Channel 4 from 1991 to 1993. The main star was Paul Merton, who co-wrote it along with John Irwin. It is not currently available on DVD.
ul Merton: [reading the "A to Z"] Can't wait to see what happens at the end. The characters aren't up to much but the places, they seem so real!
ul Merton: The first Underground station ever opened was Baker Street in 1906. What was the point of that? Where would you go?
At one point, when a group of Chinamen raise a toast to Chairman Tse-tung Mao, Paul Merton raises his glass to his own chairman, Nicholas Parsons. This is a reference to the fact that Nicholas Parsons is chairman on the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game "Just a Minute", on which Paul Merton is a regular.
Paul had to change his name when he joined Equity and, as he had grown up in Merton, South London, he took that for his stage name.
He is the patron of the Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB)
Mother, Betty Martin, of Irish extraction.
Educated by the Jesuits at Wimbledon College.
Favorite film is Magic Christian, The (1969).
Exchanged vows with Sarah Parkinson in the Maldives in October 2000 but, because no one else was there, it was not an official marriage.
Declined to appear on the television series "Just a Minute" (1994), despite having been one of the regular players on the original radio series since 1989.
Supports the Football team Tottenham Hotspur.
