Pat Shortt

Pat Shortt is an Irish actor, comedian, writer, and entertainer born on 12 December 1967 in Thurles, County Tipperary, one of eleven children of Mary (née Scully) and Christy Shortt. He studied at the Limerick School of Art and Design and began his stand-up career shortly after graduating.

Shortt first gained widespread recognition as one half of the comedy duo D'Unbelievables, partnering with Jon Kenny for a touring act that proved enormously popular in Ireland. The pair sold out the Vicar Street venue for fourteen consecutive weeks and released several video productions together, including "One Hell of a Video," "D'Unbelievables," "D'Video," "D'Telly," "D'Mother," and "D'Collection." Among the characters Shortt developed during this period was Dan Clancy, a storyteller who became a recurring figure in his work. In "D'Telly," Shortt and Kenny portrayed two brothers running a shop, while "D'Mother" featured Kenny's character managing a pub alongside a figure initially presented as his mother but later revealed to be his father, a role played by Shortt. The duo ceased touring in 2000 after Kenny was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

On television, Shortt portrayed Tom, a character distinguished by a unibrow and a t-shirt bearing the slogan "I shot JR," in the comedy series Father Ted. In 2003, RTÉ commissioned him to develop the comedy series Killinascully, in which he reprised Dan Clancy alongside a range of other characters, building on the style he had established with D'Unbelievables. The programme ran for five seasons and six Christmas specials. In 2009, Shortt created and starred in Mattie for RTÉ, a comedy set in a Garda Síochána station featuring cast member Sue Collins; the series was retitled and reworked in 2011. In 2014, he appeared in Season 2, Episode 3 of the Sky 1 programme Moone Boy, playing a caretaker on an island in Lough Key who assists the main characters after they arrive by raft on the River Boyle.

In film, Shortt starred in Garage, a 2007 production directed by Lenny Abrahamson that received recognition at Cannes. His performance as Josie earned him the IFTA for Best Actor at the 2008 Irish Film and Television Awards. That same year, An Post issued a postage stamp featuring Shortt in the role.

Shortt made his Broadway debut in 2014 in The Cripple of Inishmaan. He and his wife Caroline have three children. Their daughter Faye, who trained at the Gaiety School of Acting, began collaborating with Shortt in 2020, creating sketches for social media. Faye subsequently co-wrote and performed in a sketch for RTÉ Does Comic Relief, and between 2020 and 2021 the two co-wrote and performed two live-stream shows before taking their live comedy production "Well" on tour.