Julian Barratt
Barratt in 2006
Born	Julian Barratt Pettifer (1968-05-04) 4 May 1968 (age 56) Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Alma mater	University of Reading
Occupation(s)	Comedian, actor, musician
Years active	1995–present
Partner	Julia Davis
Children	2

Julian Barratt Pettifer (born 4 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside comedy partner Noel Fielding.

Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Barratt attended the University of Reading. With Fielding, he established the Mighty Boosh. Together, they produced a 2001 radio series, The Boosh, for BBC Radio London. This was followed by a television series, The Mighty Boosh, comprising three series for BBC Three from 2004 to 2007. The show generated a cult fan following and won a variety of awards.

Alongside Fielding, he has starred in Unnatural Acts, Nathan Barley and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Barratt also co-wrote and starred in the 2017 film Mindhorn. He starred in the Channel 4 black comedy-drama sitcom Flowers.

Barratt was born Julian Barratt Pettifer on 4 May 1968 in Leeds, West Yorkshire.^[1] He grew up in Leeds^[2] and his father was a science teacher^[3] and a fan of jazz music^[4][5] with it being commented that "...both [Noel Fielding and Barratt] had fathers who loved Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, and who encouraged their sons to avoid getting proper jobs."^[5]

When he was younger Barrat played in a band^[6] and has described how when he was seventeen he wanted to begin playing jazz guitar in a band, saying "We went to stay with a friend of a friend’s uncle in London but we came back after three days. We thought we’d make inroads into the jazz scene in London – we’d read biographies about guys who got gigs at Ronnie Scott’s and got spotted and immediately taken into someone’s band. So we told our parents we were leaving home. They gave us two days and we lasted three...".^[7] It was further commented that "He initially thought he’d be a musician and set off as a teenager... [with Barratt saying] “You know the well-known saying: leave home at 17 and make your fortune in London as a jazz drummer...”.^[2] He later began studying a course in American studies at Reading Universiy from which he left before graduating.^[5][8]

On his beginnings in stand up Barrat has commented that "I was never like Noel [Fielding] or Lee Mack, who are just funny all the time. No one ever said to me, you should be a comedian mate. But I watched a lot of stand-up at uni – people like Mark Lamarr, Sean Hughes, Eddie Izzard, just standing on a stage doing these phenomenal routines. And I could see how you could do it. So I started doing it myself, and I was so shocked when it worked. I remember one time I completely forgot what I was about to say, and I just ran out of the venue."^[7]and also that "I ran through the back door mid-act and through fields to a lake."^[6] and "Then the manager came out after me and said: 'Get back in there, it’s going well.' So I went back. I suppose that was a big turning point for me."^[7]

Barratt has further commented on his beginnings in theatre that "I’m looking at a big poster of myself now and I know my 16-year-old self would see that and think, what is going on there? He would be amazed that people actually like what I do. When Noel and I started gigging together and found people were really enjoying it, it was such a thrill. It was a validation of what felt like a long process of growing up, coming up against all these difficulties if you’re shy and you have all these dreams and thoughts you can’t communicate. It was very exciting to finally find a way to express myself, and seeing people enjoying that. I suppose I’m interested in communicating a pretentious, pompous person a lot of the time, and I have to recognise there is that in me. I did a few serious things before I got into comedy, which make me shudder now. I remember having my mate film me, all shadowy, doing performance poetry. My goodness."^[7]

Barratt adopted his middle name as his surname to distinguish himself from reporter Julian Pettifer.^[9]

In 1997 he first met Mighty Boosh collaborator Julian Barrett when they both appeared on the same comedy bill at a pub in north London.^[5] On the day they met they both went back to Julian's place that night where Barret played music on his Akai sampler whilst Fielding used a ping-pong ball to make an eye patch. ^[5]

Noel Fielding has commented on their shared interest in music that "I was sort of a bit more rock n roll and pop and he [Julian Barret] was a bit more jazz but then we sort of met in the middle with electro... but Julian was... I think he left univeristy to join a band, we were both in bands before we were in the Boosh, so we sort of came from that background. Lot of our friends were in bands."^[4]They also found they both shared common interests in comedy including Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.^[2][5]

In 1998 Barratt and Fielding, along with Rich Fulcher, performed their new stage show The Mighty Boosh at the Edinburgh fringe festival and returned on two further occaisions to perform the shows Arctic Boosh (1999) and Autoboosh (2000). In 2001 The Mighty Boosh became a radio show on BBC London Live and in 2004 it became an 8 part TV show which aired on BBC Three with a second series airing in 2005. Fielding commented in 2015 that the film was something he talked about writing with Barratt^[10] and has also commented that "I would love to do a Boosh film I really would. I hope we do cos I feel like thats what we started out wanting to do. We really wanted to do a film, really,... ...we wanted to do a film, and then we thought alright we'll do a live show. We didn't really know how to do a live show we thought we'd just learn, and then we sort of... ...we did a radio show, we did a TV show, we never quite got around to doing a film... ." ^[3]

In 2006 Barratt and Fielding went on tour with a new theatre show The Mighty Boosh Live. After the tour ended they then returned to TV in 2007 with the third series of The Mighty Boosh. Fielding has commented that "The touring lifestyle is quite hard... ...In the boosh tour we did a 100 day tour and we had one day off a week to travel and we were playing arenas and we partied every single night and we got up for sound check at six O'clock. So we were like Dracula. I was like Dracula. So I'd wake up at six, do a sound check, wake up, do the show, go to a party, stay up till five in the morning, sleep all day, every day for a hundred... ."^[4] Fielding has further commented about the Mighty Boosh that "It was crazy cos we were just going.... ...it was never mean't to be, we were never mean't to be playing the O2 and Wembley and being on the cover of Time Out and... ...being on Jonathan Ross I dont think we ever thought that would happen... ...We always sort of just made it in our bedroom and then brought it out and stuff happened. We were as surprised as anyone when we won the Perrier and we were surprised when it got put on telly. We were like 'Wow this is great' we weren't ever sort of planning it. Like... ..we didn't even know if we could make a living from it." ^[3] Barratt has also commented that “Me and Noel went to HBO once and pitched this really ludicrous idea about us driving around in a haunted car and they just stared at us. Literally stared at us!... ...Luckily, we were together so we could laugh about it..." ^[2]

In the Mighty Boosh Barratt stars as the character Howard Moon opposite Noel Fielding's Vince Noir in the comedy series The Mighty Boosh. Howard labels himself a "jazz maverick" and claims to be a multitalented intellectual, calling himself a "man of action", but he is actually unsuccessful in his literary and romantic ventures. He is unpopular with many of the characters, including Mrs. Gideon (who always forgets his name), Bob Fossil (who often uses Howard as a puppet for his bizarre schemes), and Bollo (who often says his name wrongly or ignores him completely). Barratt composed all of the music for the series, which includes a variety of genres such as rap, heavy metal, and psychedelic rock.^[5][6]

Barratt has had parts in other dramas, often alongside his Mighty Boosh partner Noel Fielding. He starred as Dan Ashcroft, a frustrated magazine writer, in the Channel 4 media satire Nathan Barley, and appeared in the surrealistic black comedy series Asylum alongside Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (who wrote and starred in Spaced). The character of Brian Topp in Spaced was written for Barratt, but eventually went to Mark Heap. Barratt played Jackson, a musician, in How Not to Live Your Life. He starred in the "Freelance Scientist" commercial for Metz alcopop.^[11] He appeared as The Padre in the spoof horror series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. He also starred in (and was a writer for) the 1998 sketch show Unnatural Acts, alongside Fielding. Before this, Barratt was one half of an experimental comedy duo called "The Pod" with friend Tim Hope, in which they billed themselves as a "Cyberdance Collective".^[12] During this time he also appeared in the 2001 film Lucky Break.

Barratt made his directing début for Warp Films with theatre director Dan Jemmett. Curtains is set in a Norfolk seaside town. It is a dark comedy about a Punch and Judy man. In 2012, Barratt directed his first music video, for the song "All of Me" by Tanlines.^[13] He can be heard as the voiceover on many adverts, such as More Th>n Car, House and Pet insurance, and the Directgov advert. He appeared in the music video for Mint Royale's "Blue Song", alongside Noel Fielding, Nick Frost, and Michael Smiley. In 2010, Barratt took part in Sky Comedy's Little Crackers. He wrote and directed a 15-minute film based on his teen band, Satan's Hoof. On 12 March 2011, he made a brief appearance as Heathcliff in Noel Fielding's "Wuthering Heights" dance on the Let's Dance for Comic Relief finale. He also narrated the 2011 documentary Seven Dwarves.

In 2012, Barratt appeared in the miniseries Treasure Island on Sky1, as well as narrating the BBC Two documentary The Tube. He also had a part as an art teacher in the BBC drama White Heat. In 2013, he appeared in the fifth series of Being Human, playing a werewolf named Larry Chrysler. He also narrated the BBC Two documentaries The Route Masters: Running London's Roads and The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway. In April 2014, he collaborated with Julia Davis and Joe Frank on Frank's radio show "Isolation," which was broadcast as part of KCRW's UnFictional series.

In April 2016, he starred as Maurice Flowers, a children's author battling depression, in the Channel 4 series, Flowers, a 6 part dark comedy mini series which follows the eccentric and dysfunctional members of the Flowers family.^[14] He reprised the role for the second series in 2018.

He plays the title character in the film Mindhorn, which he co-wrote with Simon Farnaby. It was released through Netflix on 12 May 2017.

In 2024, Barratt appeared in series 2 of Extraordinary as a special powers counsellor. The lead character had a crush on him and they shared a kiss after having described him as a DILF to her friend Carrie. He also appeared in the miniseries Knuckles as Jack Sinclair.

From 3 June to 9 July 2011, Barratt played the Mayor in a production of Nikolai Gogol's classic comedy The Government Inspector at the Young Vic Theatre. In October 2012, he returned to the stage in Lucy Kirkwood's play NSFW at the Royal Court.^[15]

Barratt is an accomplished musician, and played guitar for Little Chief during their European tour.^[16] He took an interest in jazz fusion at a young age, and by 17 was attempting to launch a career as a professional jazz guitarist. He was in a band called Groove Solution in the early 1990s with Dave Westlake,^[16] and has also played bass with Chris Corner in IAMX.^[17]

Barratt is in a relationship with comedian Julia Davis. The couple have twin sons.^[18] In 2010, they performed together in a production of Chekhov's The Bear for Sky Arts 2 and in Sally4Ever, which Davis also wrote and directed. Barratt is known to be shy, quiet, and self-deprecating.^[19] Unlike his comedy partner Noel Fielding, he prefers not to appear on comedy quiz shows or make similar public appearances, stating that he would rather "stay at home with a good book".^[20]

• 2022 The Great nominated Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Comedy Series 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
• 2019 Killing Eve nominated Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series Online Film and Television Awards, Killing Eve 2018.
• 2016 Mindhorn nominated Best Debut Screenwriter British Independent Film Awards 2016.
• 2014 ABCs of Death 2 nominated Audience Choice Award Chicago International Film Festival.
• 2010 The Mighty Boosh won Best Live Show with Future Sailors at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2010.
• 2009 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2009
• 2008 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2008.
• 2007 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2007.
• 2001 The Boosh, first on London Live, then on Radio 4.
• 2000 Arctic Boosh won the Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
• 1999 Perrier nominee with Noel Fielding as Arctic Boosh
• 1998 Perrier Best Newcomer winner with Noel Fielding as the double act The Mighty Boosh
• 1995 Won BBC New Comedy Award
• 1995 Won Open Mic Award, Edinburgh

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• Julian Barratt at IMDb
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