When Russell Brand was found guilty on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault on Thursday, to some observers it marked the downfall of a star who was once one of Britain’s most renowned comedians and a Hollywood celebrity married to the pop star Katy Perry.
Yet even before this week, Brand, 51, had a turbulent career in which his provocative comedy and political views often caused scandal.
Here is a timeline of Brand’s bumpy path from comedian and actor to conspiracy-minded influencer with millions of followers.
August 2000: Brand performs at the Edinburgh Fringe, an annual festival that draws comedians hoping to gain wider attention. Chortle, an influential comedy website, says in a review that although Brand’s set contains lots of “oversimplified political stuff,” he is “eminently watchable” and “will surely be a success.” That same year, MTV U.K. hires Brand as a presenter.
Sept. 12, 2001: One day after the 9/11 attacks, Brand goes to work dressed as Osama bin Laden and smokes crack in a bathroom, according to his memoir. MTV fires him.
July 2004: Brand’s revives his TV career by presenting a “Big Brother” spinoff. During the trial, a woman testified that she had met Brand at a birthday party in London around that time, and that within about a minute of meeting, he groped her. Another woman told the jury that, around the same time, Brand assaulted her at a radio station, groping her as members of his entourage watched on. The jury found Brand guilty on two counts of sexual assault.
August 2004: Brand stars at the Edinburgh Fringe with “Better Now,” a show about his recovery from heroin addiction.
2006: The Sun, a best-selling British tabloid, names Brand its “shagger of the year” because of the amount of sex he has. It gives him the title the next two years, too.
November 2007: Brand publishes his memoir, “My Booky Wook,” which mentions that his manager sent him to a sex addiction clinic in Philadelphia in 2005 because his “carnal overindulgences” were causing him “professional difficulties.”
April 2008: Brand gains fame in the United States playing Aldous Snow, a flashy British rock star, in the movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” A few months later, Brand presents the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, although he annoys some viewers by saying that President George W. Bush “wouldn’t be trusted with a pair of scissors” in Britain.
October 2008: Brand records an episode of his British radio show in which he and his co-host, Jonathan Ross, phone Andrew Sachs — the veteran actor best known for playing the waiter Manuel in “Fawlty Towers” — and make repeated references to Brand having had sex with Sachs’s granddaughter. When The Mail on Sunday newspaper writes about the show, readers flood the BBC with complaints and Brand resigns.
February 2009: Brand performs “Scandalous,” a stand-up hour about his recent travails, to sold-out audiences in London. During the trial, a woman said that after one performance of the show, she had group sex with Brand. A few days later, she went to Brand’s house, she said, expecting to have consensual vaginal sex, but Brand anally raped her. The jury found Brand guilty on that charge.
June 2010: Brand reprises his Aldous Snow character for “Get Him to the Greek,” with Jonah Hill. In a New York Times review, the critic A.O. Scott calls Brand “brilliantly unpredictable.” Four and a half months later, Brand’s U.S. profile soars when he marries Perry. The marriage lasts just over a year, until Brand files for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
October 2013: Brand’s career swerves in a new direction when he appears on “Newsnight,” a high-profile BBC current-affairs show, to discuss politics. In the interview, he says that he has never voted and that Britain needs to adopt a “socialist egalitarian” political system based on “massive distribution of wealth.”
February 2014: Brand launches a YouTube series called “The Trews” (a portmanteau of the words “true” and “news”). In one episode before Britain’s 2015 election, he interviews Ed Miliband, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party at the time, who is hoping to reach young voters. (Miliband later says he regrets doing the interview.) Over time, Brand also starts discussing spirituality and health in “The Trews.”
March 2020: As the Covid-19 pandemic hits, Brand makes clips that express skepticism about governments’ responses to the crisis. His December 2020 YouTube video “Covid Vaccine: Skepticism or Trust?” quickly gets over a million views.
Sept. 15, 2023: Brand posts a video to X, captioned “This is happening,” in which he warns his more than 10 million followers that “two mainstream media outlets” are about to accuse him of criminal sexual behavior. He denies the accusations.
Sept. 16, 2023: The Times of London publishes an investigation into Brand in which four women accuse him of sexual assault, including one accusation of rape. A British TV documentary also details the accusations. Some prominent U.S. figures defend Brand, including Elon Musk, who posts on X: “I support Russell Brand. That man is not evil.”
Sept. 25, 2023: The London police say they are investigating “a number of allegations of sexual offenses” involving Brand.
April 2024: After years exploring various faiths and spiritual beliefs, Brand says on social media that he has been baptized in the Thames River. He was assisted by Bear Grylls, the TV adventurer.
September 2024: Five weeks before the U.S. presidential election, Brand appears at “Rescue the Republic,” a rally featuring anti-establishment speakers like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Jordan Peterson.
April 4, 2025: British prosecutors charge Brand with multiple counts of sexual assault, including two of rape. Eight months later, prosecutors announce further charges, including another of rape. Brand pleads not guilty.
April 2026: Tucker Carlson Books publishes Brand’s “How to Become a Christian in 7 Days,” which outlines his journey to God. In an interview to publicize the book, Carlson says he believes that Brand is facing “a real jail term” because he “spoke against the people in power.” Brand says that if he doesn’t go to prison, he will run in London’s 2028 mayoral election.
Oct. 12, 2026: The trial on rape and sexual assault charges begins with prosecutors saying that Brand was once a “sexual predator.” Over the next three weeks, six women testify in court about their accusations. In Brand’s own testimony, he says that he at times “misused” his fame, but that he had never had sex without consent.
Nov. 5, 2026: Brand is convicted on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, and found not guilty of two other counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.
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