Mark Robert Bailey (born 13 January 1965), known by his stage name Bill Bailey, is an English comedian, musician and actor. Bailey is known for his role in Black Books and for his appearances on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You and QI, as well as his stand-up work.
Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in 2003. In 2007, and again in 2010, he was voted the seventh greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.
Bailey was born in Bath, Somerset. Until 2018, when he revealed the correct date, Bailey's birthday was wrongly recorded by the media as 24 February. He spent most of his childhood in Keynsham, a town situated between Bath and Bristol in the West of England. His father was a medical practitioner and his mother a hospital ward sister. His maternal grandparents lived in an annexe, built on the side of the house by his maternal grandfather who was a stonemason and builder. Two rooms at the front of the family house were for his father's surgery.