Comedian, actor, guru, rapist: Russell Brand’s path to prison

In June 2013 Russell Brand was in his element: on stage in front of an adoring crowd.

The comedian and actor was at the height of his fame, a year after his divorce from pop star Katy Perry, with a slew of Hollywood comedies under his belt.

Brand was being interviewed for a podcast with fellow comic Richard Herring, recorded in front of a live audience at Leicester Square Theatre in London.

The episode description joked that the host struggled to decide what to ask ahead of the show: "What do you ask the man who has already admitted everything?"

"I raped someone once," Brand announced, kicking back and crossing his legs as the crowd laughed.

But fourteen years later, he sat behind a glass box in a London courtroom and denied he was a rapist.

After a four-week trial, Brand was convicted of one charge of rape and three of sexual assault but acquitted on two charges of rape and one of attempted indecent assault.

On Monday a judge sentenced him to 10-and-a-half years' jail.

As he left the court in a prison van, Brand's journey from Hollywood's A-list to the UK's sex offender registry was complete.

Over a career spanning 25 years, Brand moved from comedian and actor to political activist, then wellness guru, anti-vaxxer and finally, alt-right Christian influencer.

He started out as a stand-up comedian in the late 1990s, then went on to present music and television programs.

Brand's big break came in the mid-noughties when he started hosting a Big Brother UK spin-off show, called Big Brother's Big Mouth.

By 2007, the comedian was a household name in Britain.

He hosted a radio show on BBC Radio 2, and became a bestselling author with the release of his memoir, My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs and Stand-Up.

The book detailed encounters with women that included "smashing" a sex worker's phone against the wall, and using lies, "tears and blackmail" to manipulate a woman into sex.

"What kind of man was I? Treating women in this way? If this is what I'm telling you, can you imagine what's being left out?," Brand wrote.

Brand's obsession with sex was key to his notoriety.

During his Scandalous stand up show in 2009, Brand described his stream of consciousness in the lead up to meeting Queen Elizabeth II: "In the back of my mind, I'm thinking grab her f*****g t**".

The joke was used in the show's advertising trailer.

There were controversies, such as the "Sachsgate" scandal in 2008. Brand and his radio show co-host Jonathan Ross left obscene prank messages on actor Andrew Sachs's answering machine, which led to Brand resigning from the BBC.

That same year, he was awarded the Sun newspaper's "Shagger of the Year" for the third time.

When Brand married US pop star Katy Perry in October 2010, he was catapulted into another level of fame.

Brand texted her to say he wanted a divorce, moments before she walked on stage to perform at a New Year's Eve concert in 2011.

By that stage he was established in Hollywood's comedy scene, appearing in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and Get Him to the Greek (2010).

But over the next few years he drifted further from the mainstream.

By the end of 2013, Brand's comedy got more political, and by 2014 he had launched his first YouTube show.

He gained a new kind of notoriety, encouraging people not to vote.

Following his second marriage to British model Laura Gallacher in 2017, Brand moved into podcasts.

He became increasingly associated with COVID scepticism and alternative-media politics.

In September 2023, The Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches published an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct from several women dating back to his early career.

YouTube suspended his monetisation, while several broadcasters and tour organisers cut ties.

Brand was charged with rape and sexual offences related to separate women — who did not appear in the documentary — in April 2025, then convicted in November 2026.

During sentencing, Judge Joel Bennathan told Southwark Crown Court that the entertainer-turned-conspiracist was a "sexual predator" who had shown "staggering arrogance."

A few months after the allegations were aired, in April 2024, Brand converted to Christianity and was baptised by famous survivalist Bear Grylls in the Thames.

Following his conviction, Mr Grylls posted a statement online saying Brand's faith "seemed genuine to me at the time" and that judgement was for "the courts and God".

Six months before his conviction, Brand embarked on a round of interviews with mostly right wing Youtubers when his most recent book was released, titled 'How to Become a Christian in Seven Days* *May Take 50 Years of Sin and Serious F*ck Ups to Get Started'.

US political commentator and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly asked Brand what he would do if it was "God's plan" for him to go to prison.

"If it's God's plan, then there's no point resisting it, is there?," Brand replied.