Richard Ellef Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is a British filmmaker, actor, comedian and broadcaster. He played the role of socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd (2006–2013), for which he won the 2014 BAFTA for Best Male Comedy Performance. From 1998 to 1999, Ayoade was the president of the Footlights club whilst a student at the University of Cambridge. He and Matthew Holness debuted their respective characters Dean Learner and Garth Marenghi at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000, bringing the characters to television with Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004) and Man to Man with Dean Learner (2006). He appeared in the comedy shows The Mighty Boosh (2004–2007) and Nathan Barley (2005). After directing music videos for Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, he wrote and directed the comedy-drama film Submarine (2010), an adaptation of the 2008 novel by Joe Dunthorne. He co-starred in the American science fiction comedy film The Watch (2012) and his second film as a writer and director, the black comedy The Double (2013), drew inspiration from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella of the same title. Ayoade has frequently appeared on panel shows, mostly prominently on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, and served as a team captain on Was It Something I Said? (2013). He presented the factual shows Gadget Man (2013–2015), its spin-off Travel Man (2015–2019), and the revival of The Crystal Maze (2017-2020). He has also voiced characters in a number of animated projects, including the films The Boxtrolls (2014), Early Man (2018), The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019), Soul (2020), and The Bad Guys (2022), as well as the series Strange Hill High (2013–2014), Apple & Onion (2018–2021), and Disenchantment (2021). Ayoade has written three comedic film–focused books: Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey (2014), The Grip of Film (2017), and Ayoade on Top (2019). He is currently writing two children's books: The Book That No One Wanted to Read (2022) and a picture book called The Fairy Tale Fan Club (TBD). Ayoade often works alongside Julian Barratt, Matt Berry, Noel Fielding, Matthew Holness, and Rich Fulcher. Early life Richard Ellef Ayoade was born Hammersmith, London on 23 May 1977, the son of a Norwegian mother and Nigerian father. The family moved to Ipswich when he was young. At the age of 15, he developed an interest in film "beyond