Richard Thomas Osman (born 28 November 1970) is a British television producer, presenter, comedian, and author best known for his role as the question giver on Pointless. He's also incredibly tall, standing at 6 feet, 7 inches (2 metres) in height.
He began his career working for Endemol UK, appearing behind the scenes producing television stalwarts such as Deal or No Deal, 8 Out of 10 Cats, and 10 O'Clock Live, as well as creating his own game show - the poorly-received 24 Hour Quiz.
In 2009, his career took an unexpected swerve into fame, when he took on an on-screen role as co-presenter of Pointless. He didn't intend for this to happen, only taking a seat behind the computer to show BBC executives how the format would work before a more-experienced presenter could be cast. However, the executives liked the rapport Osman had with Alexander Armstrong and suggested that Osman stay on for the series proper, which he did for 1,300 episodes across 30 series before stepping down in April 2022.
Since Pointless, Osman's become a regular fixture in British pop culture, frequently making the rounds on the panel-show circuit both on television and radio — including well-regarded appearances on Just a Minute, QI, Would I Lie to You?, and the second series of Taskmaster. He also presents his own quiz show, Richard Osman's House of Games, which airs weekdays on BBC Two.
More recently, Osman has turned to writing, penning a series of mystery novels centred around a group of retirees who investigate murders in their golden years. The first novel, The Thursday Murder Club was the subject of an intense bidding war between multiple publishers and became one of the fastest-selling novels in history. No less than Steven Spielberg lapped up the rights to produce a film adaptation. The novel's sequel, The Man Who Died Twice also became a bestseller. The success of his books is the reason for his departure from Pointless.
His brother, Mat Osman, is the bassist of alt-rock band Suede.
Tropes:
- Non-Indicative Name: "Osman" is usually a Turkish name, but not only has Richard no recorded Turkish ancestry, a DNA test showed him to be of pretty much exclusively Western European descent
. He has no idea how his family came by the name. (Though the most likely explanation is that it's a corruption of "Osmond".) - Old Shame: In an article he wrote for The Guardian in October 2012 about his personal list of worst ever UK game shows, he put his own created Endemol format 24 Hour Quiz into it, saying:What I actually did was marry the mind-numbing tedium of a second-rate reality show, with the plodding boredom of a sub-standard pub quiz.
