Derek O’Brien

Derek O’Brien was born in Kolkata. He began his professional career as a journalist for Sportsworld magazine but soon shifted to advertising. After working for a number of very successful years as Creative Head of Ogilvy, Derek decided to focus all his energy and talent in his passion—quizzing.
Today, Derek O’Brien is Asia’s best-known quizmaster and the CEO of Derek O’Brien & Associates Pvt. Ltd. He is the host of the longest-running game show on Indian television, The Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest, for which he was voted the Best Anchor of a Game Show at the Indian Television Academy Awards three years in a row. He also hosts the longest-running corporate quiz show, The Economic Times Brand Equity Quiz. Derek conducts quizzes across India, in the Gulf, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore and the US. He is also credited with having conducted the first quiz on Twitter.
Derek O’Brien has also authored more than thirty reference and quiz books for Penguin, making him Penguin India’s highest-selling reference author. He is also the author of two extremely successful school textbook series with Pearson Education: Know and Grow with Derek and Be a GK Champ.
In 2011, Derek O’Brien was voted to the Rajya Sabha as a Member of Parliament (MP). He is the Chief Whip of the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha, and had the honour of addressing the UN General Assembly in 2012.
To know about Derek and his company, visit the website www.derek.in. You can also follow Derek on Twitter (@quizderek).