Simon Bird is 41 now. The bloke who played Will McKenzie in The Inbetweeners is about to be in a Star Wars film alongside Ryan Gosling. If you’d said that to him in 2008, when The Inbetweeners started, you probably would have got a laugh out of him, as he would have thought you were having him on. Yet fast-forward to December 2025, and here we are: Simon Bird has well and truly established a career that’s extended far beyond “briefcase wanker.”
The Inbetweeners Made Him
Bird was the third of four kids, born August 19, 1984, in Guildford, Surrey. His parents were professors at Claremont McKenna College. He read English at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and became president of Footlights. There he would meet Joe Thomas, who played Simon Cooper on The Inbetweeners. The show was broadcast on E4 from 2008 to 2010. Posh kid Will McKenzie, who was desperately attempting to fit in with his new comprehensive school mates, became a legend. Bird won the 2008 British Comedy Award for Best Male Newcomer and the 2009 award for Best Actor.
In 2010, he received a nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Simon Bird’s movies and TV shows from that era include the two Inbetweeners films in 2011 and 2014. The films were money machines. That first one shattered box office records for a comedy. The second one was less successful but still had a good showing.
Friday Night Dinner
From 2011 to 2020, Bird starred in Friday Night Dinner as Adam Goodman. And the show itself joined the pantheon of Channel 4 classics. Six series of the Goodmans getting together for Shabbat dinners, with Bird and Tom Rosenthal as siblings, Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter as their parents. Ritter’s death in 2021 put an end to the possibility of further series. Bird’s worked consistently since then.
He was the co-creator of Chickens in 2013 (a sitcom about men who stayed in England during World War I) He starred in Channel 4’s Everyone Else Burns in 2023. He did perform stand-up with his show Debrief in 2022, but Chortle described it as “less a stand-up special than an experimental art-house movie.”
Going Behind the Camera
Simon Bird’s nationality is British, but his work has taken him places. In 2015, he and Jonny Sweet founded Guilty Party Pictures, backed by StudioCanal. In 2022, they set up People Person Pictures in partnership with BBC Studios. Bird’s directed loads. Series 3 of Pls Like. The first series of Ellie & Natasia. Multiple episodes of Such Brave Girls for the BBC, which The Guardian called “hands down the funniest British comedy of the year” in 2023.
He produced A Whole Lifetime With Jamie Demetriou for Netflix, which won the Rose d’Or for Best Comedy Entertainment. He produced How Europe Stole My Mum, which The Guardian described as “nothing short of a miracle.” His directing work is getting noticed. The Telegraph’s theatre critic praised his performance in The Philanthropist in 2017, saying he “delivers the goods by subtle, incremental means.”
The Star Wars Gig
In August 2025, Lucasfilm announced Bird had joined the cast of Star Wars: Starfighter. Production kicked off in the UK with Ryan Gosling, Amy Adams, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Daniel Ings, Flynn Grey, and Jamael Westman. The film is set five or six years after The Rise of Skywalker. It’s an original story in an era never shown on screen before. Matt Smith and Mia Goth are playing villains. Shawn Levy, who directed Deadpool & Wolverine, is directing. British fans immediately joked that Bird should voice a droid or have a briefcase scene. S
ome say he’s taken a leaf out of the book of British comic actors like Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade, who’ve also done voice work in Star Wars projects. The film releases on May 28, 2027. That leaves Bird enough time to complete his other efforts before marketing a gigantic blockbuster.
His Other Film Project
In April 2025, it was announced that Matthew Broderick, Sally Hawkins, and Martin Freeman had signed on for Bird’s latest directorial feature, Pretend I’m Not Here. It’s set during World War II, about an ordinary couple who offer refuge to a Jewish perfume salesman during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The film is a Parkville Pictures and Lemming Film co-production developed with BBC Film.
Cornerstone launched international sales at Cannes. It’s described as a “compelling and comedic exploration of human relationships tested by extraordinary circumstances.” So Bird’s directing a serious historical dramedy whilst also appearing in a Star Wars film. That’s the range.
His Personal Life
Simon Bird’s wife is Lisa Owens. They married in 2012 after meeting at Cambridge University whilst performing a comedy sketch together. Bird was proposed in Paris in 2011. Lisa’s a scriptwriter. Her 2017 book Not Working was praised by the Observer as laugh-out-loud funny. Bird adapted her graphic novel into the 2019 film Days of the Bagnold Summer. They’ve got two children and live in London. They keep family life private, though Bird told The Times last year they’d implemented a “travel ban” after recognising the stress of holidaying with young kids.
Money and Social Media
Simon Bird’s net worth isn’t publicly confirmed, but between The Inbetweeners films, Friday Night Dinner, his production companies, and directing work, he’s done alright. Add a Star Wars film to that, and the number only goes up. Simon Bird’s Instagram exists, but he’s not massively active on social media. He’s more focused on the work itself than on building an online presence.
The Inbetweeners Return
In October 2025, it was announced that The Inbetweeners is coming back. The series creators, Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, made a deal with Banijay UK. The original cast that includes Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison will all be returning. It isn’t known as of yet whether it is a TV series, a limited special or a feature film.
Insiders suspect it will be set when the characters are middle-aged men juggling marriages, kids and careers. All four actors are fathers now. The internet went wild with the news. The Inbetweeners is one of the most popular British sitcoms of the 21st century. In 2019, The Guardian ranked it number 74 in its list of the best 100 TV shows of the 21st century.
From Will to Here
Simon Bird could’ve easily been typecast as Will McKenzie forever. Instead, he’s built a proper career as an actor, director, and producer. He’s worked with the BBC, Channel 4, Netflix, and now Lucasfilm. He’s gone from playing an awkward teenager to appearing in Star Wars and directing serious historical dramas. Not bad for someone whose most famous line is probably “bus wankers.”
