Robert Popper

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Robert Popper : biography

Robert Popper is a multiple award-winning British comedy producer, writer, actor, and author, best known as co-creator of the mock BBC documentary Look Around You, and creator of Channel 4’s sitcom "Friday Night Dinner". He also wrote the bestselling books , and under the pseudonym Robin Cooper.

Television and film

Popper began his career in the television industry working for The Comic Strip under Peter Richardson. He then worked on the Channel 4 show, "The Big Breakfast", writing for comedy puppets, Zig & Zag. He also made his first appearance as a comedian on The Eleven O’Clock Show as character Simon Michael Simon. Later, he was employed as a Commissioning Editor for Entertainment and Comedy at Channel 4. His commissioning credits include the series Bo’ Selecta!, Black Books, Spaced and Bremner, Bird and Fortune. He also commissioned three series of the Comedy Lab whilst at the channel. He left the role to work on the first series of Look Around You (2002) with Peter Serafinowicz. Look Around You was a spoof educational science comedy which ran on BBC2. It was written and produced by Popper (who featured onscreen in one episode as "Jack Morgan" also performing the glam rock song "Little Mouse") and Serafinowicz (who appeared more frequently). The pair also wrote and played all the music in the series. Look Around You was nominated for a BAFTA and a British Comedy Award. In 2003, Popper co-wrote the short film Hello Friend with Graham Linehan.

In 2005, Popper returned to the screen with a second series of Look Around You, again co-written by himself and Peter Serafinowicz. Made up of six half-hour shows, Look Around You 2 resembled an early-80s Tomorrow’s World . Popper appeared in all six episodes as Jack Morgan. Besides Popper and Serafinowicz, the series featured Josie D’Arby and Olivia Colman as presenters. Look Around You 2 won the Rose D’Or TV Award in 2006 for Best Comedy Series. Popper was a programme consultant and co-writer for the TV sketch comedy The Peter Serafinowicz Show (2007), in which he also made several brief onscreen appearances.

Popper was producer for the third and fourth series of Channel 4’s Peep Show. Both series won the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy, and Popper won a BAFTA for series 4. Popper was the script editor on all three series of The Inbetweeners. He was also script editor on Graham Linehan’s "The IT Crowd", and the BBC3 comedy, "Him & Her"

In 2009 Popper and Serafinowicz wrote, produced and performed in a 30 minute podcast entitled . The comedy purported to be a radio show coming from the only radio station ("Radio Spiritworld") to broadcast from the afterlife. Robert and Peter also created the online world religion, "", making a variety of shorts. In addition, the pair have created a number of web videos on YouTube showcasing their surreal humour, including "Birds of Britain", "Markets of Britain" and "Intermission".

Popper also wrote on the fourteenth series of South Park; he was signed up by creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker following a week long brainstorming session, and worked on the final four episodes of first half-season.

Popper created, wrote and produced 2 series of the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner. Series 1 aired from February 2011 and won the Rose D’or Award for Best Sitcom, a BAFTA nomination, 4 British Comedy Award nominations and an RTS nomination for Best Writer, Comedy. Series 2 aired from October 2012 and a Christmas Special will air in December 2012.

Popper had a small, uncredited role in Edgar Wright’s 2004 film Shaun of the Dead, in which he played a news reporter, and also appeared in the Wright’s next film, Hot Fuzz (2007), credited as "Not Janine." Popper reprised his Look Around You character, Jack Morgan, for an appearance in the music video for Frankie & The Heartstrings’ 2011 single "Hunger."