Bill Oddie

While studying at the University of Cambridge, Bill Oddie appeared in campus theater productions, one of which was such a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that it was staged in London's West End theater district, New Zealand, and then Broadway. He also began writing for television while at Cambridge, scripting episodes of the program "That Was the Week that Was." He made his first television appearance in 1964, on the show "On the Braden Beat," and then subsequently made his way to comedy radio, performing on the hit show "I'm Sorry, I'll Read that Again." At the same time, he began to have success as a musical parodist. His big break came in 1970 when he and two of his university friends, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, who had also worked on the radio with him, formed the comedy troupe "The Goodies." Their surreal sketch comedy series, which ran for 12 years, was a major international hit, making the three men very well known. He has continued to make regular appearances on various comedy shows, having perfomed on "Married With Children" in 1992, "Adam's Family Tree" in 1997, and "Ronni Ancona & Co." in 2007, among many others. He has also turned his lifelong passion for bird watching into a major part of his career by writing books and presenting programs on the subject. His conservation work in that field earned him the Order of the British Empire in 2003.