Mark Labbett

Mark "The Beast" Labbett (born 15 August 1965) is a personality in the UK quiz scene. He attended Exeter College, Oxford University, graduating with a degree in Mathematics. He is rated as the 98th top quizzer in the official UK rankings (as of 2 April 2012).

As a player, he captained Wales in the 2005 European Quiz Championships. He has not made himself available to play in serious international competition since 2007.

In September 2005, Labbett won the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Live! final event in Torquay and won £16,000; Mark also won in March 2006 £32,000 in the TV studio. In 2007, he came second in the final of the BBC series The National Lottery People's Quiz. Winning the money would have enabled Mark to donate a five-figure sum of the £200,700 to cancer research - a charity close to his heart.

As an administrator, he was a founder member of the British Quiz Association and served two terms before resigning the board of quizzing.co.uk in July 2004. He also set questions for the 2003 and 2004 World Quizzing Championships.

Labbett competed in the first series of Are You an Egghead? but was beaten in the first round. He had also appeared as a contestant on Challenge TV's short lived Stake Out.

He was then a member of the Rugby Boys team in the second series of the BBC Four quiz Only Connect. They won the series, but were beaten in the Champions vs. Champions final by The Crossworders. He also does supply work for schools occasionally.

Labbett is between 6ft 6in (1.98m) and 6 foot 7 (2m), weighing around 26 stone and attended the Merseyside Grand Prix on 2 May 2009 alongside Barry Simmons and Olav Bjortomt.

Labbett portrays one of the 'Chasers' in the ITV1 teatime quiz The Chase and is referred to by host Bradley Walsh as 'The Beast', possibly due to his second name sounding like the French term "La Bête" meaning "The Beast", though it more likely references his build. Labbett revealed that his younger brother is 6 ft 9in.