Dan Skinner

Daniel Renton Skinner, born in London on 25 January 1973, is an English actor and comedy writer whose work spans stage, film, television, radio, and podcasting. He has built a career around comic performance, often appearing as the character Angelos Epithemiou, while also working as one half of the Brian and Roger podcast. His career belongs to a busy period of British comedy shaped by sketch shows, panel formats, character comedy, sitcoms, and online offshoots.

Skinner attended Reed’s School in Surrey and studied Drama at Middlesex University London, graduating with a BA (Hons) between 1994 and 1997. His early credits included the 24-hour play The Warp with Ken Campbell. After that, he began writing and performing comedy regularly with Stephen Evans and Neil Edmond in a sketch troupe called The Benders. That mix of theatre, collaboration, and sketch work fed into the adaptable style that later carried him across many different comic settings.

On television, Skinner has appeared in a wide range of comedies, including Mike Bassett: Manager, The Office Christmas specials, My Family, Coupling, Yonderland, and The Armstrong & Miller Show, where he appeared in series 1, 2, and 3 in 2007, 2009, and 2010. He was also a regular writer and performer on Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show. Later roles included appearances in House of Fools, Friday Night Dinner, The Kennedys, Tracey Ullman’s Show, Tracey Breaks the News, Not Going Out, Cold Call, The Cockfields, and This Time with Alan Partridge.

His most visible comic creation is Angelos Epithemiou. Skinner appeared as Epithemiou on series 6 of Shooting Stars as a permanent member of Team B, replacing Johnny Vegas, and in series 7 and 8 he replaced George Dawes as score keeper. The character was introduced by Bob Mortimer as a competition winner and burger van owner, and later developed an obsession with Ulrika Jonsson. In 2010, Skinner took the character on a UK tour, Angelos Epithemiou & Friends Christmas Show. In December 2011, he won Best Comedy Breakthrough Artist at the British Comedy Awards for his work as Epithemiou, and in 2012 he starred in The Angelos Epithemiou Show on Channel 4.

Skinner’s work has also reached radio and film. He played several roles in the BBC Radio 4 comedy series Deep Trouble, and in 2014 appeared weekly on Fubar Radio with Barry from Watford in The Barry & Angelos Show. His film credits include Tim Plester’s short World of Wrestling, High-Rise, Swallows and Amazons, Notes on Blindness, The Toll, and the animated film Fox and Hare Save the Forest, in which he voiced Fox and Rat. A line linked with him, “Fear is temporary, regret is forever,” has the same directness that suits much of his comedy: short, sharp, and built to stick.