Once a celebrated comedian who starred in Hollywood films, Russell Brand has now been convicted of a string of sex offences.

The 51-year-old, who soared to fame when he fronted Big Brother’s Big Mouth, was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a high-profile four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.

The trial marked an extraordinary fall from grace for the media personality, who became a major household name in late noughties and was married to Katy Perry, one of the world’s most famous popstars. Later on in his career, he developed a huge cult following as he peddled conspiracy theories on politics, society and Covid in videos posted on YouTube and Rumble.

He will be sentenced on Monday.

Follow live updates on the Brand verdict

Here,looks at Brand's career, relationships and controversies over his 30-year career.

Brand, who was born in Essex, is an comedian, actor, podcaster, and media personality. His career has seen him go from starring alongside Alec Baldwin on screen to guest editing the .

He first cut his teeth as a stand-up comic, finishing fourth at the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year final in 2000, where he managed to attract an agent. That same year, he appeared on the Edinburgh Fringe as part of the stand-up show , alongside Mark Felgate and Shappi Khorsandi.

While working on his career in stand-up, he worked at MTV UK as a video journalist and presenter – a job he lost after he dressed as Osama Bin Laden the day after 9/11, he wrote in one of his books.

His career flourished when he began presenting on E4, the sister show to, in 2004.

He went on to host award a string of awards ceremonies, such as the MTV Video Music Awards and the Brit Awards, and also fronted the UK leg of charity concert Live Earth. He hosted a radio show on BBC 6 Music, before being given a Saturday show on BBC Radio 2.

With his fame reaching new heights, Brand made his debut on the big screen as Flash Harry in the 2007 comedy St Trinian's. His name reached the US when he starred in the 2008 film Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He also had roles in Rock of Ages and Get him to the Greek, when he met Katy Perry, whom he would go on to marry.

As well as appearing on screen, Brand wrote books, the first being his My Booky Wook. He later published Articles of Faith – a collection of his columns from – and Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal.

Brand has had a number of high-profile relationships, including with American singer Katy Perry. The pair married in 2010 in a Hindu ceremony in Rajasthan, India.

Just over a year later, he filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, which was finalised in July 2012.

Brand also had a relationship with Jemima Goldsmith from 2013 to 2014.

The couple first dated in 2007 when Ms Gallacher was 19, and Brand was 31. They married in 2017 and have three children.

In 2008, Brand was at the centre one of the biggest controversies in BBC history when he and presenter Jonathan Ross left voicemails for actor Andrew Sachs – who played Manuel in Fawlty Towers – live on air during a BBC 2 radio show which detailed how Brand had slept with Sachs' granddaughter.

The scandal, later dubbed Sachsgate, prompted 40,000 complaints. Brand left the station and Ross was suspended from the BBC for 12 weeks, while the corporation was slapped with a huge fine.

Brand prompted numerous other controversies throughout his career. He once said that Bob Geldof was only an expert on famine because he had "been dining out on I Don't Like Mondays for 30 years".

While hosting the MTV Video Music Awards in 2008, Brand said George W Bush, who was US president at the time, was a “retarded cowboy fella” as he urged US voters to back Barack Obama.

In 2013, he was kicked out of the GQ Awards after making a joke on stage about event sponsor Hugo Boss manufacturing Nazi uniforms.

Brand has always been open about his use of illegal drugs and publicly described himself as a sex addict.

As well as his high-profile career in entertainment, Brand hasn’t shied away from politics over the years.

Once a prominent left wing activist, he wrote guest columns for and, in the launch of his guest-editorship with the he famously claimed in an interview with Jeremy Paxman: “I never voted, never will”. He claimed that he was looking for “alternative political systems”, which “shouldn’t destroy the planet, shouldn’t create massive economic disparity, shouldn’t ignore the needs of the people.”

He appeared as a witness before the UK parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee in 2012. to give evidence for its inquiry into drug policy.

Brand would go on to clash over immigration on Question Time with Nigel Farage in 2014, the same year he started on YouTube, a political-comedy web series, which featured guests such as Alistair Campbell and George Monbiot.

Perhaps the height of Brand’s political legitimacy was when Ed Miliband appeared on the show in 2015 as part of his campaign running for Labour leader in an interview watched 1.4 million times.

But since the Covid-19 pandemic, his YouTube channel – followed by more than six million people – has shifted to more conspiratorial content. He began to spout Covid-19 denialism and more conspiratorial views, even promoting unfounded claims of US bioweapon labs in Ukraine.

In September 2022, YouTube took down one of his videos citing medical misinformation over Covid. He moved his channel to alt-tech streaming platform Rumble, launching a daily live show, Stay Free with Russell Brand. His YouTube channel was demonetised in 2023.

He went on to perform a comedy set at a campaigning event for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when he was running for president in 2024, whom he endorsed. That same year, he attended the Republican National Convention. A year later, he spoke at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest.

His YouTube channel has since pivoted to share clips of his streams, which he films on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as well as a Sunday Service with the Brands, alongside his wife Laura Gallacher.

Following an investigation by and Channel 4 Brand was charged with three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one allegation of attempted indecent assault, relating to six women spanning a decade from 1999 to 2009. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The trial went into greater details about the accusations levied against Brand. In one instance, Brand was accused of raping a woman in a hotel room after she attended the 1999 Labour Party Conference and trying to indecently assault an MTV worker by pulling her into a toilet in 2001.

He was also accused of forcing himself on another MTV worker in a Soho bar toilet during a party in 2004, kissing and groping a radio worker in 2005 in a corridor, and raping a 21-year-old fan he met after a stand-up comedy set at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009.

Brand was also alleged to have thrust his head into a female Channel 4 worker’s lap in 2009 when she had been forced to give him a massage.

Brand has been found not guilty of raping a woman he met at a cabaret show on the fringes of the 1999 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.

The jury also found him not guilty of trying to drag an MTV worker in to a toilet to indecently assault her in 2001.

He was found guilty of groping another MTV worker during a party at a Soho bar in 2004, but not guilty of going on to orally rape her in a toilet.

Jurors found Brand guilty of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio worker after encountering her in a corridor in 2005.

He was found guilty of raping a 21-year-old fan after meeting her at a 2009 stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo.

And Brand was found guilty of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 worker during a forced massage in 2009.