Graham Linehan

Graham Linehan (/ˈlɪnəhæn/; born 22 May 1968) is an Irish television comedy writer and director who, often in partnership with Arthur Mathews, has written or co-written a number of popular television comedies. He is most noted for the sitcoms Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd.

Career
Linehan and Mathews first met while working at Hot Press.[2] In their early collaborations, they were responsible for segments in many sketch shows, including Alas Smith and Jones, Harry Enfield and Chums, The All New Alexei Sayle Show, The Day Today and the Ted and Ralph characters in The Fast Show (the characters were created by Linehan and Mathews and played by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson). The two continued their collaboration with Paris[3] (one series, 1994) and Father Ted (three series, 1995–1998).[4][5][6] They then wrote the first series of the sketch show Big Train, but Linehan bowed out for the second series.

They also wrote the "Dearth of A Salesman" episode for the series Coogan's Run, which featured the character Gareth Cheeseman. In late 2003, they were named one of the 50 funniest acts to work in television by The Observer.[7]

Linehan has since written for other shows, including Brass Eye. With Dylan Moran, he co-wrote the first series of Black Books, a series to which Mathews also contributed. Linehan has also contributed material to Blue Jam, and its television adaptation Jam.

Linehan wrote and directed the 2006 Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd, in which he sought to move away from the recent British trend towards mock-documentary comedies, and to return to an old-fashioned style of sitcom, recorded before a studio audience.[8][9] In November 2008, he was awarded an International Emmy for The IT Crowd.[10] In 2013, he wrote and directed The Walshes.