Robert Popper

Robert DarrenPopper is a British comedy producer, writer, actor, and author, best known as co-creator of the mock BBC documentary Look Around You, and creator of Channel 4's sitcom Friday Night Dinner. He also wrote the books The Timewaster Letters, Return of The Timewaster Letters and The Timewaster Diaries under the pseudonym Robin Cooper.

Television and film

Popper began his career in British television working for The Comic Strip under Peter Richardson. He then worked on the Channel 4 show, The Big Breakfast, writing for comedy puppets, Zig and Zag. He also made his first appearance as a comedian on The Eleven O'Clock Show as character Simon Michael Simon. Later, he was employed as a Commissioning Editor for Entertainment and Comedy at Channel 4. His commissioning credits include the series Bo' Selecta!, Black Books, Spaced and Bremner, Bird and Fortune. He also commissioned three series of the Comedy Lab whilst at the channel. He left the role to work on the first series of Look Around You (2002) with Peter Serafinowicz. Look Around You was a spoof educational science comedy which ran on BBC2. It was written and produced by Popper (who featured onscreen in one episode as "Jack Morgan" also performing the glam rock song "Little Mouse") and Serafinowicz (who appeared more frequently). The pair also wrote and played all the music in the series. Look Around You was nominated for a BAFTA and a British Comedy Award. In 2003, Popper co-wrote the short film Hello Friend with Graham Linehan.