Born in Dundrum, County Down, Patrick Kielty was affected by the Troubles as a teenager when his father Jack, a businessman, was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in the Ulster Freedom Fighters. Although he had no political ties, Jack was due to testify against Ulster Defence Association extortionist Jim Craig in a libel case.

Patrick got into stand-up while still a student at Queen's University, Belfast, and started a club at the city’s Empire club, which he compered. That spawned a one-off BBC television special The Empire Laughs Back, which won him a Royal Television Society award for best Regional presenter.

He later became the audience warm-up act for BBC Northern Ireland’s Anderson On The Box – and when this show was axed, he presented its replacement, PK Tonight, which ran for a year and brought him to the attention of London-based broadcasters.

Over the next 15 years he fronted a long list of TV porgrammes, including The Stand-up Show, Comic Relief, National Lottery Big Ticket, The Big Breakfast, Love Island and Fame Academy. In 2004, Kielty hosted pilot episodes of the American version of Deal or No Deal for ABC, but the network did not pick up the series, which ended up on NBC with Howie Mandel as host.

In 2006 Kielty returned to stand-up and released a DVD filmed at Belfast's Grand Opera House. The following year he appeared on BBC One’s Live At The Apollo to re-established his stand-up credentials.

In 2010, he landed the job of hosting the topical show Stand Up For The Week on Channel 4.