FROM RED CARPETS TO ROCK POOLS!

Irish actor Chris O'Dowd made his name in The IT Crowd before winning over Hollywood. Now, after swapping Los Angeles for London, he's become an animation hero as the narrator of children's show Puffin Rock

- By Alison James

THE IT Crowd made him famous before Hollywood came calling. But now, after many years living stateside, Chris O’Dowd is back in Blighty with wife Dawn O’Porter and their two young sons — and he’s waxing lyrical about the healing power of puffins!

The Irish actor, writer and comedian is much taller in real life than you might expect. When I meet him in the private cinema room of London’s Soho House, he’s sitting in a dusky-pink velvet armchair that’s just a tad too small for his 6ft 4in frame.

Never mind. He’s just as warm and friendly as he appears on screen, with a laugh that's an instant pick-me-up. We’re here to chat about his narration of the third series of Puffin Rock, the award-winning animated series about puffins for preschoolers, which has just landed on CBeebies.

But first, I want to know how life is back in the UK after 16 years spent in Los Angeles. Chris, 45, returned with his wife, the actress, writer and comedian Dawn O’Porter, 46, and their two children Art, 10, and Valentine, eight, a year ago.

“It’s good, kind of settled,’ he muses on life back across the pond. “We just felt very disconnected, very far away. Our parents were getting older and all that kind of jazz, so we just kind of made a run for it. I miss the weather in LA, but that’s mainly it.”

He says one of the main reasons they left is that nothing gets filmed in California anymore. “I was working all the time, just never in California — I'd be in Vancouver, Atlanta, New Mexico, Toronto — but it was never California because the tax breaks ran out. More than anything, the move was about me living in a place where I could also be a parent. The kids are at the age now where they need you around.”

And the Bridesmaids star doesn’t mind the lack of red carpets. “Being away from Hollywood is fine,” he shrugs. “Nobody really likes Hollywood, unless you're a big party person. I was never really a big party person.”