Chris O'Dowd's star is sailing so high above other mere luminaries, we'd be forgiven for not being able to see it any more. With A-list friends and co-stars on both sides of the Atlantic, a sharp, sexy, famous wife in Dawn O'Porter and young tot, an International Emmy for Best Comedy in his back pocket… your man appears to have it sewn up.
How, then, has he managed it? And more interestingly, how he's managed it without incurring the hate-fest that usually goes with homegrown boy done good (*thinks Ricky Gervais, Steve Coogan et al)?
Well, you need look no further than Moone Boy to discover a lot you need to know about Chris O'Dowd, and why his shoes are glued so solidly to Planet Earth in general, and Ireland in particular.
'Moone Boy' – third series now on Sky One, the first two available in boxset - is Chris O'Dowd's baby, the story of a 12-year-old boy, Martin Moone, and his imaginary friend Sean, who talks him through the chaos of a large family, and encourages his unique perspective on the world. Simple, whimsical and unashamedly sentimental, it was jumped on by critics, celebrating it as "a life-affirming delight".
And it's all true, based on the experiences O'Dowd had growing up in the very same town of Boyle, County Roscommon, with an ever-chattering trio of older sisters.
Of course, this is only the first chapter. Since then, there's been a lucky casting, first in 'The IT Crowd' where the wit of co-star and writer Richard Ayoade turned O'Dowd's character Roy Trenneman into one of those geeks it's cool to find attractive, every fan thinking they're first to spot it, you know the type.
Then, roughly the same thing happened over there - just to an audience about a million times the size - when his nearly-lead role as the wholesome, good egg cop Nathan Rhodes in 'Bridesmaids' proved just as appealing as the Lothario that Kristen Wiig left behind - and that was Jon HAMM for heaven's sake…
Oh, and just in case we thought he'd forgotten how to do telly or had been sucked wholesale into Hollywood, there he was in 'Girls' - shacking up with will-o-the-wisp Jessa, and making even a rich-but-dim bored bloke hankering after a threesome somehow uncreepy - or at least not as creepy as he could well have been in less gentle hands…
Should we mention last year's Tony Award nomination for his turn in the Broadway revival of 'Of Mice and Men', holding his own against James Franco and Leighton Meester? Or being handpicked by comedic godfather Christopher Guest for his BBC comedy 'Family Tree'? Or have we made our point?
So, in a nutshell, Chris O'Dowd seems to be a completely versatile, international star who can swap coast for coast without sacrificing any of his very locally-bred charm. But, for the time being, there are only three more things you need to know about this man...
He insisted 'Moone Boy' be shot in his native Ireland, and the theme music - Tico's Tune by Geoff Love - is the same as for the iconic Gay Byrne radio show - something that means a great deal to the star's compatriots.
He's not that CHUFFED about the US remake of 'Moone Boy' that he's writing but not appearing in, admitting to Radio Times, "I don't know if it will work, to be honest. The tone in America needs to be a lot warmer, and Moone Boy is already pretty warm." When has anybody EVER said this going into what is presumably a lucrative arrangement?
And, finally, this, a picture he posted on Twitter from his wedding day to Dawn O’Porter in 2012, at the beginning of what they called a three-day ‘WedFest’. Somehow, we don't think this man's for spoiling any time soon…
