Alan Roger Davies (/ˈdeɪvɪs/;[1] DAY-vis; born 6 March 1966)[2] is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor and TV presenter.

[7] In 2016, he pursued a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London,[4] which he completed in September 2018.

He continued touring and performing in the UK and Australia, winning the Edinburgh Festival Critics Award for Comedy in 1994.

A version of his show Urban Trauma, which ran in the West End at the Duchess Theatre and toured the UK and Australia, was shown on BBC One in 1998.

[8] The title for this show came from a story he heard about a six-year-old girl being told off by her mother and responding "Life is pain".

From 1997 to 2016, he played the title role in Jonathan Creek, a trick-deviser for a stage magician, with a side interest in solving crimes.

[10] In 2001, Davies played Robert Gossage in Bob and Rose, a comedy drama about a gay man falling for a woman.

In 2003, Davies appeared as a Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car on Top Gear with a time of 1:54 in wet conditions.

Davies took on a less comedic role in 2004, starring as Henry Farmer, a maverick barrister, in ITV Sunday night drama The Brief, for two series.

On 16 May 2010, Davies appeared in "Your Sudden Death Question", an episode of the ITV detective series Lewis, as Marcus Richard, a scamming quizmaster at a competition held in an Oxford college, at which some of the contestants are murdered.

In September 2010, he began a three-part documentary series Alan Davies' Teenage Revolution (Channel 4), partly based on his autobiographical book My Favourite People and Me, 1978–88.

[15] Since 2014, he has hosted The Dog Rescuers for Channel 5 and the chat show Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled for Dave.

Davies appears as the only permanent panellist on the BBC Two comedy quiz game QI, which was hosted by Stephen Fry from 2003 to 2016, and then by Sandi Toksvig.

His record stood until Joel Corry achieved 41 successful cracks at Capital's Jingle Bell Ball on 12 December 2021.

The book also mentions Arsenal F.C., the football team supported by Davies; he recalls as a child his mother sewing their club badge and captain's number onto his shirt, done only a year or so before she died.

On 18 January 2011, he began hosting the new Arsenal Podcast "The Tuesday Club" with Ian Stone, Keith Dover, Tayo Popoola and Damian Harris.

His support of Arsenal has been used as a recurring source of humour on QI in various ways, such as by assigning him a buzzer sound of a chant by fans of rival club Manchester United.

"[30] Despite initially voting for Jeremy Corbyn to be party leader, when being interviewed by Radio Times alongside fellow comedian Jo Brand regarding the broadcast of his Channel 4 sitcom Damned (which coincided with the 2016 Labour leadership election), Davies supported Owen Smith's leadership bid, saying Corbyn was an ineffective Leader of the Opposition.