Robert Llewellyn (born 10 March 1956, in Northampton, Northamptonshire) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is best known as the mechanoid Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf, and for his role as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge. Llewellyn is also a science and technology enthusiast, atheist and sceptic. He frequently does talks at science, technology and sceptical events and actively promotes electric cars and renewable technologies. Llewellyn has an active online presence.

Biography

Prior to becoming a comedian, Llewellyn served an apprenticeship and became a professional shoemaker, working at James Taylor & Son and John Lobb Bootmaker in London. Speaking to Richard Herring, he said he still maintains an interest in the craft; "There is still a side of me that wants to develop a kind of 3D printed shoe thing... where you just put your foot in a thing and you just get a shoe and it's there. and it fits absolutely exquisitely, immediately."

Llewellyn, who is of Anglo-Welsh ancestry, learnt to drive at age 11 (having been taught by his older brother in a go-kart); formerly a "petrol-head", he is now an electric car advocate. As well as being frequently interviewed on the subject, he has a related video blog called Fully Charged.

On the evening of 1 July 2009 while Llewellyn was en route to deliver Carpool footage to his editor, another vehicle hit him side on at a junction in Gloucestershire, writing off his Prius and rendering him unconscious for around ten minutes. The force of the impact was such that it bent his laptop "into a banana shape".

Llewellyn praised the honesty of the other driver for accepting full liability for the incident, and the hospital, police and other services for helping him. He also gave special praise to his "beloved Prius" for protecting him from the impact. He suffered concussion, minor whiplash and dizzy spells but escaped more serious injury.

In 2014 he drove, with David Peilow, a Nissan Leaf 400 miles from London to Edinburgh. Stopping 9 times, it took 12 hours, beating a previous time set by the BBC three years earlier which took 4 days in a Mini-E, as well as beating the faster time set by David Peilow in a Tesla roadster, which had left 2 days after the Mini-E, which took around 19 hours.

He is an atheist and skeptic, and has expressed that his major pseudoscientific irritations are astrology and climate change denial.

Llewellyn lives in Gloucestershire and is married to Australian author Judy Pascoe.