Who is Russell Brand?

Russell Brand

Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, radio host, author, and activist. In 2004, Brand achieved notoriety as the host of Big Brother's Big Mouth, a Big Brother spin-off. In 2007, he had his first major film role in St Trinian's, a film about an anarchic school for uncontrollable girls. In 2008, he had a major role in the romantic comedy-drama Forgetting Sarah Marshall; the film led to him starring in the spin off, the rock comedy Get Him to the Greek in 2010.

He also worked as a voice actor in the animated films Despicable Me in 2010, Hop in 2011, and Despicable Me 2 in 2013. He played the title character of the 2011 remake of the romantic comedy Arthur.

Brand has received media coverage for controversies such as his dismissal from MTV, his behaviour as a presenter at various award ceremonies, and his drug use. In 2008, he resigned from the BBC following prank calls he made to actor Andrew Sachs on The Russell Brand Show. He has incorporated his drug use, alcoholism, and promiscuity into his comedic material.

Brand's first presenting role came in 2000 as a video journalist on MTV. He presented Dancefloor Chart, touring nightclubs in Britain and Ibiza, and hosted the tea-time request show Select. Brand was fired several days after coming to work dressed as Osama bin Laden the day after the 11 September 2001 attacks and bringing his drug dealer to the MTV studios. After leaving MTV, Brand starred in RE:Brand, a documentary and comedy television program that aimed to take a challenging look at cultural taboos. It was conceived, written, and hosted by Brand, with the help of his comic partner on many projects, Matt Morgan. The series was shown on the now-defunct digital satellite channel UK Play in 2002.

In 2004, he hosted Big Brother's Eforum on E4, a sister show to Big Brother 5. The show gave celebrity guests and the public the chance to have their say on the goings-on inside the Big Brother house. For Big Brother 6, the show's name changed to Big Brother's Big Mouth.

Brand's first autobiography, My Booky Wook, was released on 15 November 2007 and received favorable reviews. Andrew Anthony from The Observer commented that "Russell Brand's gleeful tale of drugs and debauchery in My Booky Wook puts most other celebrity memoirs to shame". The second book, Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal, was released on 30 September 2010.
Brand has been said to dress in a "flamboyant bohemian fashion" and has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder. He also suffered from bulimia and experienced a period of self-harming. Brand has described the concept of fame "like ashes" in his mouth.

Brand and fellow Radio 2 DJ Jonathan Ross made a series of phone calls to actor Andrew Sachs in which Brand alleged on air that he had had sex with Sachs' sexy granddaughter. Brand met singer Katy Perry in mid-2009.

Since 2013, Brand has appeared more frequently as a campaigner for serious issues rather than an entertainer. On 23 October 2013, Brand was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman for the BBC's Newsnight and was challenged about his call for "revolution" and whether someone who had never voted could edit a political magazine. In the issue of the New Statesman, published on 24 October 2013, Brand's essay explained his objection to the destruction of earth through greed and exploitation, and called for a change in consciousness to accompany political and economic measures to achieve a more sustainable future. Nick Cohen in The Guardian commented about Brand: "He writes as if he is a precocious prepubescent rather than an adolescent: a child, born after the millennium, who can behave as if we never lived through the 20th century."

British commentator Joan Smith dismissed Brand as the "canny self-publicist" who indulges in "waffle about 'revolution'" as "one celebrity, I'm afraid, who's more idiot than savant." Former Independent editor Simon Kelner largely defended his appearance on Newsnight: "It sounded rather attractive, even if it wasn't exactly worked through. But Brand's rhetorical flourishes made up for the lack of detail". A few months later, documentary film maker Adam Curtis, in an interview for the New Humanist magazine, questioned Brand's advocacy of not voting in elections: "Who benefits from that? The unelected powerful, because you’re emotionally and psychologically disempowering politicians. The only power politicians have is the collective confidence we have in them. The most radical thing is to recapture the idea you can change the world."

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