Half way through a PhD in Physics at Cambridge University, Ben met Alexander Armstrong (who was also studying there) in 1992. Instead of finishing his PhD, Ben chose to scrap science for comedy and started playing at 'The Comedy Club Footlights', Cambridge. After four years of touring pubs and underground comedy clubs the pair appeared on 'Saturday Night Live' as (now one of their most well known  ...  show all 

Half way through a PhD in Physics at Cambridge University, Ben met Alexander Armstrong (who was also studying there) in 1992. Instead of finishing his PhD, Ben chose to scrap science for comedy and started playing at 'The Comedy Club Footlights', Cambridge. After four years of touring pubs and underground comedy clubs the pair appeared on 'Saturday Night Live' as (now one of their most well known sketches) Euro-Rock duo 'Strijka'. 1996 saw the pair nominated for 'The Perrier Award' and were given their first commissioned series titled "The "Armstrong and Miller" (1997)". Broadcast first on The Paramount Channel, which was then followed by three further series shown on Channel four (1997, 1999 & 2001). The pair are currently writing 6 half hour episodes titled 'The Fold', featuring two of 'The Armstrong and Miller' characters. Ben and Alexander took 'The Armstrong and Miller show' on tour last November and did a 17 day back to back stint. The success of 'Armstrong and Miller' gave Ben a springboard to work on other projects. 'Passion Killers' and 'The Blind Date' are just some of the television films that have enabled Ben to go more mainstream and show he is capable of 'straight' acting as well as his cheeky-chappy side shown in 'The Armstrong and Miller Show.' Ben is not shy of the big screen either. August 2001 saw the release of Steve Coogan's: "Parole Officer (2001)", in which Ben played small time criminal Colin and in 1999 he starred alongside Ray Winstone and Robert Carlyle in the comedy drama "There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000)". Most people may not recognise Ben as the voice of ITV's Digital Monkey who stars alongside fellow comedian Johnny Vegas in the infamous adverts, which has led to a wad of merchandise and a string of 15 minute programmes, yet to be shown. March 2002 sees Ben as a snotty hotel concierge in Jez Butterworth's film: "Birthday Girl (2001)". With further future projects lined up for this year - (including a six part series called "Book Group, The" (2001)", to be shown later on), only time will tell if the 35 year old will remain underground or leap out into the mainstream audience.
His Ph.D thesis at Cambridge was on 'novel quantum effects in quasi-zero dimensional mesoscopic electrical systems'. (Sunday Times)
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