Paul James Martin , better known by the stage name Paul Merton, is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is best known as a panellist on the BBC television show Have I Got News for You and Radio 4's Just a Minute, as well as Channel 4's Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the first five series, and as the host of the BBC TV show Room 101 and the ITV improvisation show, Thank God You're Here.

His style is characterised by describing extremely improbable scenarios with a straight, almost serious, face. He rapidly grabs hold of any chance to expand on a subject and stretch its credibility to snapping point. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In The Comedian's Comedian, a 2005 Channel 4 poll of fellow comedians, he was voted the 20th funniest comedian in the universe. A 2007 poll saw him voted alongside the likes of Oscar Wilde, Spike Milligan, Noël Coward and Winston Churchill as one of the ten greatest wits ever.