David O'Doherty

David Nicholas O'Doherty ( or ; born 18 December 1975) is an Irish comedian, author, musician, actor and playwright and son of renowned jazz pianist Jim Doherty. His stand-up has won many international awards, including the if.comedy award in 2008 and Best International Comedian at the 2014 Sydney Comedy Festival.

O'Doherty has written several books, written two plays and released three comedy CDs. His book for children, Danger Is Everywhere, illustrated by Chris Judge was selected for the UNESCO Dublin, City of Literature Citywide Reading Campaign and was published in 10 languages around the world. His book The Summer I Robbed A Bank won the 2021 Irish Children's Book of the Year Award.

Early life O'Doherty's father is pianist Jim Doherty. His grandfather was Kevin O'Doherty, an Irish hurdles champion, and his great-grandfather was Séamus O'Doherty, a head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He is the youngest of three children and has an older brother and sister who are seven and eight years older than him, respectively.

O'Doherty studied philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, where he was a member of the Jazz Society and a fake Breakdancing Society. It's also where his comedy career began. "I spent a lot of my time introducing things", he says, "concerts and bands, that sort of thing". "I remember my brother once bet me I couldn't get the word 'spaghetti' into an introduction for a piano recital in the Edmund Burke so I stood up and said 'my brother has bet me I can't say the word spaghetti' and I got a laugh."

Comedic career

O'Doherty worked in a bicycle shop and in telemarketing and temping before he made his first stage appearance at Dublin's Comedy Cellar in 1998. His first full show was The Story of the Boy Who Saved Comedy which received a nomination for Perrier Best Newcomer when it was performed at Edinburgh Fringe. In 2006, he was nominated for an if.comedy award for his Edinburgh show, David O'Doherty Is My Name. O'Doherty has performed at festivals across the world in locations that include Adelaide, Melbourne, Montreal, New York City and Wellington NZ, Moscow and Iceland. As a support act he first toured Ireland with Tommy Tiernan, the United Kingdom with Rich Hall and the United States with Demetri Martin.

In August 2008, O'Doherty won the If.comedy award at the Edinburgh Fringe for his show Let's Comedy, which featured "a relationship in text messages, tunes played on a 3ft electronic keyboard, and a badger attack". He was presented with the 2008 Intelligent Finance Comedy Award and a cheque for £8,000 (€10,000) by the previous winner Brendon Burns and the Australian author and television presenter Clive James.

Since September 2024, O'Doherty has been hosting the comedy podcast What Did You Do Yesterday? together with Max Rushden. Each week a new guest, usually a comedian, is interviewed about their respective yesterdays.

Television career In June 2012 he became the first Irish comedian to have their own Comedy Central Presents episode on American television.

In May 2007, O'Doherty's first TV series, The Modest Adventures of David O'Doherty, began airing on RTÉ Two. The six-part series was directed by John Carney, following the completion of his Academy Award-winning film Once.

In May 2026, O'Doherty starred in The Way Out on U&Dave, a comedy series based on a Belgian TV format where comedians compete in a series of escape room challenges. Hosted by Mel Giedroyc, his co-stars and teammates are Nish Kumar and Amy Annette, along with Ed Gamble, Chloe Petts, and Lou Sanders on the opposing team.

Literary career

O'Doherty has written widely for newspapers and magazines and also has two plays, several books and a radio series to his name. His debut book was a children's book entitled Ronan Long Gets It Wrong, written in 2000. It was illustrated by David Roberts and published by Mammoth Storybooks. His first play is entitled Saddled and was written with Bryan Quinn. It was claimed as "the world's first theatrical production to feature live repair of audience members' bicycles". In 2008, he and fellow Irish comedian Maeve Higgins performed I Can't Sleep, a play recommended for children aged 5–8. This was O'Doherty's first play for children. The play, which involved the audience entering the theatre to find both performers asleep in separate beds, was performed in both Dublin and Edinburgh.

He has also written a series for RTÉ Radio about bee detectives with his brother Mark, entitled The Bees of Manulla. O'Doherty released a book detailing 100 false facts about pandas called 100 Facts About Pandas. He followed this up with 100 Facts About Sharks which is 100 false facts about sharks. In 2014 he and illustrator, Chris Judge, released a children's book, Danger Is Everywhere: A Handbook for Avoiding Danger.

His book The Summer I Robbed A Bank won the 2021 Irish Children's Book of the Year Award.

Personal life O'Doherty is an avid cyclist and owns, as of 2025, 18 bicycles. He has also stated publicly that he has never once eaten a turnip, and anyone who states otherwise will face legal ramifications. O'Doherty is a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur.

Filmography In 2008, O'Doherty starred alongside comedian Dylan Moran, Keith Allen and Neil Jordan in A Film with Me in It, a cinematic release written by and starring his brother Mark Doherty.

Edinburgh Fringe shows YearTitle 2000 David O'Doherty: The Boy Who Saved Comedy 2002 David O'Doherty: Small Things 2003 David O'Doherty Creates Something New Under The Sun 2004 David O'Doherty in World Champion of Some Things 2005 David O'Doherty: Grown Up 2006 David O'Doherty Is My Name 2007 It's David O'Doherty Time 2008 David O'Doherty: Let's Comedy 2009 David O'Doherty: David O' Doh-party 2010 David O'Doherty: Somewhere Over The David O'Doherty 2011 David O'Doherty Is Looking Up 2011 David O'Doherty presents: Rory Sheridan's Tales of the Antarctica 2012 Seize the David O'Doherty (Carpe D'O'Diem) 2013 David O'Doherty Will Try to Fix Everything 2014 David O'Doherty Has Checked Everything 2015 David O'Doherty: We Are All in the Gutter, But Some of Us Are Looking at David O'Doherty 2016 David O'Doherty: Big Time 2017 David O'Doherty: Big Time 2018 David O'Doherty: You Have To Laugh 2019 David O'Doherty: Ultrasound 2022 David O'Doherty: whoa, is me 2023 David O'Doherty: Tiny Piano Man 2024 David O'Doherty: Ready, Steady, David O'Doherty 2025 David O'Doherty: Highway to the David Zone

Awards and nominations for stand-up comedy O'Doherty has been decorated with numerous awards for his achievements in comedy. In 1999, he won the Channel 4 So You Think You're Funny Comedy Competition at the Edinburgh Fringe and was also a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Awards in the same year. He eventually won the if.comedy Award (formerly the Perrier Award) in 2008 for Let's Comedy. He was also nominated for the Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2006 and in 2014 received the award for Best International Comedian at the Sydney Comedy Festival.

Discography O'Doherty has also released five live audio albums, Giggle Me Timbers (or Jokes Ahoy!), recorded in front of 35 people in his studio apartment and Let's David O'Doherty (2009), We Are Not The Champions (2012) and You Only Live (2015) recorded at Whelan's in Dublin.

YearTitlePeak chart position2007 "Orange" No. 302009 Let's David O'Doherty 2012 We Are Not The Champions 2015 You Only Live 2020 Live In His Own Car During A Pandemic