Bob Mortimer was born in Middlesbrough in 1959, the youngest of four sons. He trained as a solicitor before a chance encounter with Vic Reeves in the 1980s led to a successful career in comedy as half of the duo Reeves and Mortimer. His screen credits include Shooting Stars, Big Night Out, Catterick and most recently BBC Two's Gone Fishing.

His memoir, And Away..., published in 2021, became the bestselling memoir of the year, was named The Times and Sunday Times Humour Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for Non-fiction Book of the Year at the National Book Awards. The Satsuma Complex, his first novel, was published in 2022. It was an instant Sunday Times bestseller and won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction in 2023.

He's on Twitter and Instagram as @RealBobMortimer.