Career: After graduating, Fry and Laurie enjoyed a successful comedy partnership. Fry was a millionaire by 30, thanks to a successful rewrite of the Noel Gay musical Me and My Girl. He has appeared in numerous films and TV projects, including Blackadder, Jeeves and Wooster, Wilde, Thunderpants, Kingdom and The Hobbit. He's also written several books, and is well-known as a charming raconteur. He made his movie debut as writer and director with Bright Young Things, based on Evelyn Waugh's book, Vile Bodies. Fry is the presenter of comedy quiz QI, he has also made several acclaimed documentaries, including ones about manic depression and Aids, and he is the reader for the British versions of JK Rowling's Harry Potter series of audio books.

Career: Davies performed his first stand-up gig in 1988, and by the early 1990s was a rising star, picking up rave reviews at Edinburgh. He later gave up playing clubs to concentrate on radio. His Radio 1 series, Alan's Big One FM, led to TV appearances on shows such as One Foot in the Grave, before he was cast as the lead in Jonathan Creek, the light-hearted mystery drama that made him a household name. Other acting work includes Bob and Rose, A Many Splintered Thing, The Brief, Marple, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008), Lewis and Whites. He presented the three-part documentary Alan Davies' Teenage Revolution for Channel 4 in 2010 and was a judge in 2011 on ITV talent show Show Me the Funny. He's also appeared in West End hit Auntie and Me. He has been a permanent panellist on irreverent quiz QI since the show began in 2003.

Career: He has appeared in many movies and TV shows over the years and has had parts in Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, Angela's Ashes, Agnes Browne alongside Anjelica Huston (for which he also wrote the screenplay), Sweety Barret with Brendan Gleeson, Britain's Fattest Man and The Van. O'Carroll has written seven novels, including The Mammy, The Chisselers, The Granny, The Scrapper (originally published as "Sparrows Trap") and The Young Wan. He is best known for playing Agnes Brown in the sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys.

Career: Brand's sense of humour kept her going while dealing with difficult cases at work. She began doing stand-up at London clubs in the mid-1980s and eventually gave up nursing to concentrate on comedy. She was shortlisted for the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival before landing her own comedy show, Jo Brand Through the Cakehole. Since then she has regularly appeared on TV, including as a frequent guest on Have I Got News for You, Question Time and QI. She continues to do stand-up, performing at venues around the country. Brand also took part in Celebrity Fame Academy, and the reality shows Play It Again and Comic Relief Does The Apprentice. She enjoyed a bona fide hit as an actress and writer with dark medical comedy Getting On. She is a judge on ITV reality series Splash!

Career: Jupitus left the civil service, and under the moniker Porky the Poet, started touring with different bands as their support act. While working the student circuit, he met Billy Bragg and Paul Weller, and became involved in the Labour Party-supporting Red Wedge movement. He had a short-lived job at record label Go! Discs. Jupitus directed music videos before landing a radio show on the BBC station GLR in 1995. He became a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 1996, frequently appears on QI, has toured as a stand-up comedian, and hosted the breakfast show on BBC 6Music between 2002 and 2007. In 2009, he joined the West End cast of Hairspray, playing the role of Edna Turnblad. He also played King Arthur in a touring version of Spamalot in 2011.