Simon Bird wants to focus on stand-up comedy

Simon Bird wants to return to his stand-up comedy roots.

The 36-year-old actor - who rose to fame as Will McKenzie in E4 sitcom \'The Inbetweeners\' - doesn\'t want to abandon his screen career, but he\'s keen to explore the idea of putting on his own live shows.

He\'s quoted by The Sun newspaper\'s Bizarre TV column as saying: "I\'m toying around with the idea of doing a bit of stand-up.

"I have been toying around with that for years but never quite had the courage.

"I wouldn\'t close the door on acting. I\'d always read scripts if they come in but they very rarely do."

Although he made his name on \'Inbetweeners\' - which ran between 2008 to 2010 and spawned two spin-off films in 2011 and 2014 - Simon\'s early goal was to "give comedy a go", put plans changed with his early success.

He added: "My path coming out of university was that I would really give comedy a go and that means that I\'ll try and do a stand-up show at Edinburgh.

"\'The Inbetweeners\' happened so quickly and suddenly that I was moved into the world of acting, rather than stand-up and sketches.

"I am now trying to re-state my claim to doing my own thing."

Meanwhile, Simon\'s former co-star James Buckley - who played raunchy teenager Jay Buckley in the sitcom - recently revealed his plans to leave acting behind to focus on being a full-time gamer.

He explained: "I\'m not that excited about the industry and I haven\'t been for a while. I\'m really enjoying the stuff I\'m doing with my Twitch channel.

"It feels like a little business that I\'ve got control of. I\'m running it and talking to sponsors and trying to be taken seriously in that sphere now."