Ewan Bailey was born in 1966 in Brighton, Sussex,as Ewan Thomson, the son of Dr. Bruce Thomson, a noted Rugby Union player who represented Scotland at international level. He attended Brighton College and read Modern History at Keble College, Oxford, before studying drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. In 2001 he was one of the actor presenters of the BBC radio satirical show 'The Sunday Format', mocking Sunday newspaper contents, and has provided the narration for numerous television documentaries on Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel. He is also the founder of Rubbaball, a small comedy theater company.