Born in Beirut in 1967, Dom Joly is an author and comedian. He spent his childhood in Lebanon, living with his father, John Joly, who owned Henry Heald & Co, a shipping agency operating in Beirut. After the civil war broke out in 1975, he moved to England, later studying politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and working as a diplopmat in Prague. His hidden camera show, Trigger Happy TV, first aired in January 2000 – defined by a sketch in which Joly answers an oversized phone in a crowded space. This Is Dom Joly and World Shut Your Mouth followed, and he has since published three books of travel writing. His fourth, The Conspiracy Tourist, is out this month, and the accompanying tour begins in February 2024. He has two children with his wife, Stacey, and lives in the Cotswolds.
This photo was taken for Channel 4, right before the first series of Trigger Happy TV aired and my whole life changed. We left the studio and I went outside dressed as a traffic warden so we could do some shots where I was strangling Sam Cadman, who I made the show with.
