Robert Darren Popper (born 23 November 1967) 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. Personal life Popper was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and is Jewish. 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 the 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 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 that ran on BBC2. It was written and produced by Popper (who featured onscreen in one episode as "Jack Morgan", also performing the rock song "Little Mouse") and Serafinowicz (who appeared more frequently). The pair 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. In 2005, Popper returned to the screen with a second series of Look Around You, again co-written by him and Serafinowicz. Made up of six half-hour shows, Look Around You 2 resembled an early-80s Tomorrow's World . Popper appeared in all six episodes as Jack Morgan. Besides Popper and Serafinowicz, the series featured Josie D'Arby and Olivia Colman as presenters. Look Around You 2 won the Rose D'Or TV Award in 2006 for Best Comedy Series. Popper was a programme consultant and co-writer for the TV sketch comedy The Peter Serafinowicz Show (2007), in which he also made several brief on-screen appearances. Popper was the producer for the third and fourth series of Channel 4's Peep Show. Both series won the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy, and Popper won a BAFTA for