William Edgar (Bill) Oddie, OBE, is a comedy writer and performer, author, composer and musician. A birdwatcher since his childhood in Birmingham, Oddie has now established a reputation for himself as an ornithologist, conservationist and television presenter on wildlife issues. Some of his books are illustrated with his own paintings and drawings.

On a 2004 episode the BBC television series Who Do You Think You Are?, Oddie was invited to investigate his family history. The programme revealed that Oddie was raised primarily by his father after his mother was placed into long term psychiatric care suffering with bipolar disorder; and that his mother had had one miscarriage and then lost another child, a girl, after five days. It was suggested that Oddie's grandmother had prevented his mother from attending to the girl, who was crying. His mother subsequently found the child dead. Oddie speculated that his mother would have felt that his grandmother (whom she lived with) was to blame for the death of her daughter and that this psychological trauma may well have contributed to her mental ill health. "It undemonised her", he later added.

After attending King Edward's School, Birmingham, Oddie studied English Literature at Pembroke, Cambridge, where he appeared in several Footlights productions, one of which, Cambridge Circus, transferred to the West End, New Zealand and Broadway. While still at Cambridge he wrote scripts for TV's That Was The Week That Was.

Subsequently, he was a key member of the performers in the cult BBC radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read that Again (ISIRTA; 1965), where many of his compositions were featured. Some of these were released on the album Distinctly Oddie (Polydor, 1967). He was possibly one of the first performers to parody a rock song, arranging the traditional Yorkshire folk song "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" in the style of Joe Cocker's hit rendition of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends", and singing "Andy Pandy" in the style of a brassy soul number such as Wilson Pickett or Geno Washington might perform. In many shows he would do short impressions of Hughie Green.

Oddie was a member of 1970s BBC TV trio The Goodies, in which he starred with ISIRTA colleagues Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor (also veterans of Cambridge Footlights). He portrayed the rebel, to Brooke-Taylor's conservative and Garden's boffin, with long hair and a poster of Che Guevara in his corner. The Goodies also released records, including "Funky Gibbon", a chart hit single in 1975. They reformed, briefly, in 2005, for a 13-date tour of Australia.

The three have worked together since the demise of the Goodies, including the 1983 series of short animated programmes called Bananaman that parodied comic super-hero adventures. Bill Oddie voiced the characters of Crow, Chief O'Reilly, Doctor Gloom, Eric and the Weatherman.

He was the compere of a daytime BBC gameshow, "History Hunt" (2003).

He plays the drums and saxophone and appeared as Cousin Kevin in a production of The Who's rock opera Tommy at the Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London on 9 December 1972. He has also contributed vocals to a Rick Wakeman album, "Criminal Record".