Marc Wootton

Marc Wootton began performing comedy while at school in Portsmouth and later brought his comedy act The Gavroski Brothers to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He went on to direct theatre productions and ran London’s Canal Cafe Theatre. Around the same time, he co-created the mockumentary comedy Cyderdelic with Barry Castagnola and Liam Woodman, which became a success at the 2000 Edinburgh Festival.

Wootton made early television appearances on The Eleven O’Clock Show, Cyderdelic, The Pilot Show, and the BBC Two sitcom Thin Ice. His breakthrough came with the Channel 4 comedy gameshow My New Best Friend, in which he played a series of eccentric characters. He later wrote and starred in the BBC Three sketch series Marc Wootton Exposed (2008).

One of Wootton’s recurring characters, Shirley Ghostman, led to the BBC Three series High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman. The character later returned in the comedy series La La Land (2010), which aired on Showtime in the United States and BBC Three in the UK. In 2018, Wootton wrote and starred in the Channel 4 comedy series High & Dry.

Wootton also collaborated frequently with Julia Davis, appearing in Nighty Night as Gary Furze in the first series and Dennis in the second. He later worked with Davis again on the BBC Radio 4 comedy Couples. In 2014, he appeared in the first episode of the anthology comedy series Inside No. 9, titled “Sardines.”

His film work includes Confetti (2006), Nativity! (2009), and Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger! (2012), reprising his role in the sequel.

Recent screen credits for Marc Wootton include appearances in the TV series Drunk History: UK from 2015 to 2016, where he played Harold Godwinson, Joe Mears, and Dr. Robert Knox across three episodes. From 2016 to 2017, he voiced the character Max in 51 episodes of Counterfeit Cat.

In 2018, Wootton starred as Brett in the comedy series High & Dry, which he also wrote and created. He later created and appeared as Noodle in Gooseberry in 2020.

In 2022, he appeared as Harry Klunder in season two, episode three of Question Team. His more recent film and television credits include playing Jeff in Greatest Days, Moose Pleck in The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin in 2024, and Brendan Allen in The Art Of The Lie in 2025, which he also wrote and produced.