He has appeared in film, television, stage and radio productions, most notably as Bud in Sweet Bird of Youth with the Royal National Theatre, Ross in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Birchard is also known for his one-man stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald stories, a documentary film about Tennessee Williams and Konrad Hopkins which he produced and directed, and a song promoting the Glasgow Diamonds American football team.
[4] During the 1980s, Birchard worked as a DJ at Radio Clyde,[5][2] and appeared in various stage performances including supporting roles in a touring production of The Entertainer,[6] and pantomime.
"[11] In 1994, he adapted five of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby Stories into a one-man show at the Riverside Studios, London, in which he "used his broad acting talent to impersonate characters like the brash producer to the effeminate hairdresser ...
The fault does not really lie with Birchard's performance ... he plays numerous parts adeptly, flicking from Hobby's wannabe Sam-Spade suavity to a cute-talking broad.
[18] The Guardian reviewer said, "Superb performances from Sian Thomas, John Ramm, Paul Birchard and Kyle McPhail do tremendous justice to an unnerving play",[19] while The Stage wrote "the four-strong cast put in near definitive performances ... Paul Birchard is lugubrious longest-serving friend, Ross ... Ross’s gleeful delight in the idea of an affair is a superbly-judged precursor to his horror at the enormity of the reality.