Rufus Hound (born Robert James Blair Simpson[1] 6 March 1979) is an English actor, comedian and presenter.

He has also appeared in many comedy shows and quizzes such as Street Cred Sudoku and Nevermind the Buzzcocks, as well as Celebrity Juice where he was a regular panellist.

On 22 February 2016, Hound made his debut as a panellist on BBC Radio 4's Just A Minute alongside regular Paul Merton and semi-regulars Pam Ayres and Graham Norton.

[10] Hound made his acting debut in the Direct-to-DVD film Big Fat Gypsy Gangster which was directed by Ricky Grover.

From October 2012 through February 2013, Hound played the lead role of Francis Henshall in the National Theatre production of One Man, Two Guvnors on a UK tour.

In 2014, Hound played the role of Freddie in the West End production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy Theatre after out-of-town tryouts in Manchester and Aylesbury.

[11] In early 2016 he played the role of Sancho Panza in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Don Quixote, adapted by James Fenton.

In April 2018, he returned to Chichester Festival Theatre to play Garry Essendine in a revival of Present Laughter by Noël Coward.

During November and December 2020 he portrayed Buttons in the adult pantomime Cinderella: A Socially Distanced Ball at the Turbine Theatre (at the Battersea Power Station), written by Jodie Prenger and Neil Hurst.

[18] In late 2023, Hound played Pseudolus in Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Billetterie Lido 2 in Paris.

In late 2024, Hound played Jacob Marley in Mark Gatiss' adaptation of A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story by Charles Dickens at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

He performed stand-up at "Keep Corbyn event" in Kentish Town[23] In May 2017, Hound wrote a series of tweets concerning the Manchester Arena bombing, in which he implied the attack was a false flag operation designed to help the Conservative Party in the upcoming general election, likening it to the German Reichstag fire of 1933.

[24][25] The comments were widely condemned: he was compared to 9/11 truther conspiracy theorists and accused of insensitivity to the victims of the attack; he later issued an apology via social media.

[29] In April 2007, Hound was married at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas Strip, Nevada, to Beth Johnson, whom he had met at the Reading Festival the year before.