Derek O'Brien was born in Kolkata, India. He went to St. Xavier's Collegiate School in the city and St. Columba's School in Delhi. After two years in Scottish Church College, Kolkata, he began his professional career as a sports journalist for
Sportsworld, but soon shifted to advertising. After eight years in the advertising world as Creative Head of Ogilvy, Derek moved on to focus all his energy and talent on his passion - quizzing.
Today, Derek O'Brien is Asia's best-known quizmaster and the CEO of Derek O'Brien & Associates. He is the host of the longest-running game show on Indian television,
The Bournvita Quiz Contest, for which he was voted the Best Anchor of a Game Show at the Indian Television Academy Awards for three years in a row. He also hosts the longest-running corporate quiz show,
The Economic Times Brand Equity Quiz. Always innovating and keeping abreast with the times, Derek is also credited with having conducted the first quiz on Twitter in 2010.
Derek O'Brien regularly conducts quiz shows in the US, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Pakistan.
In addition to his numerous quizzes, Derek O'Brien has authored several 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 text book series with Pearson Education.
Know and Grow with Derek, is a series aimed at addressing the four vital success skills of student life: personality development, life skills, general awareness, and creativity and thinking skills. It is, at present, No. 1 in its category of books. In 2010-11, Derek launched a general knowledge series titled:
Be a GK Champ.
His
Know and Grow with Derek soft skills course is a scientifically designed interactive programme, which uses innovative mathematical tools to successfully help students in developing their personality and creativity. Over one lakh students have already benefitted from this course. Derek has conducted a number of workshops for principals and teachers on how to make classroom teaching more interactive and fun.
In 2004, Derek O'Brien joined the All India Trinamool Congress (
www.aitmc.org), a political party in West Bengal, India. He committed himself to the titanic struggle spearheaded by his leader, Ms. Mamata Banerjee. She inspired him and thousands of others to stand up against the atrocities committed in Bengal under Communist rule including mass killing, land grab and repression of all democratic systems. Mamata Banerjee appointed him spokesperson of the Trinamool Congress through the Nandigram, Singur and other pro-people movements. In 2011, Trinamool Congress swept the Assembly polls with a landslide victory, thereby ending 34 years of Communist rule in West Bengal. Derek is currently the vice-president of the All India Trinamool Congress. In 2009, he was made the head of the Passenger Services Committee of the Indian Railways, under then Minister of Railways and Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee.
In 2011 Derek O'Brien was voted to the Rajya Sabha as a Member of Parliament (MP).
He is the Printer and Publisher of the official newspaper of the All India Trinamool Congress, Jago Bangla.
Derek O'Brien & Associates is a 20-year-old company with an impeccable track record of making knowledge interesting for schools across India. The company was started in 1991, as Big Ideas, by Derek O'Brien. Today, with a team of around 60 associates, Derek O'Brien & Associates, the premier knowledge and quizzing company in India, conducts quizzes and knowledge game shows across the country and the Gulf. Through its various programmes involving over 3,500 schools across India, the company reaches out to over 12 lakh students every year. The company also publishes books in the areas of recreational knowledge (quiz and reference books) and purposive knowledge (prescribed GK text books), and conducts regular Soft Skills and Personality Development programmes for school children. With a mission to 'making knowledge interesting to help people and brands grow' Derek O'Brien & Associates' clients include some of the premier names like Cadbury India, Coca-Cola India, The Economic Times, The Times of India, Idea Cellular, Larsen & Toubro, Vodafone, Max New York Life, NTPC, Pearson Longman and Penguin Books India.
Apart from the numerous live quizzes that his company, Derek O'Brien & Associates, conducts every year, Derek has made a significant contribution to quizzing on Indian television. Little wonder that the 'Limca Book of Records' acknowledges him as the 'Quizzing King'. Here are a few of Derek O'Brien's achievements on television.
- Best Anchor Award: Derek O’Brien won the award for ‘Best Anchor: Game/Quiz Show’ at the ‘Indian Television Academy Awards’ for three years in a row.
- Best Quiz Show/Game Show: Indian Television Academy Awards 2002 and 2003
- Best Game Show Runner up: The Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest was voted the second best game show at the ‘Asian Television Awards 2000’ held in Singapore in December 2000.
- Host of longest-running quiz show on Indian television: The Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest, hosted by Derek O’Brien, continues to hold the record of the longest-running inter-school English language quiz show on television.
- First quiz on Satellite TV in the Northeast: In 2004, Derek O’Brien conducted Bharat Ke 8, a quiz on north-east India, on Sony TV.
- First quizmaster to have 3 shows running simultaneously: In 2004, Derek had three quizzes, Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest, Bharat Ke 8 (both on Sony) and The Challenge (CNBC TV 18) running at the same time.
- First with 5 quizzes in a calendar year: In 2004, Derek O’Brien had five quizzes running on three different channels: Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest and Bharat Ke 8 on Sony; The Challenge and Trial By Fire on CNBC TV 18; The Brand Equity Quiz Finals on NDTV.
- First Indian to conduct school quiz on Pakistan television: In 2007, Derek O’Brien conducted a 13-episode quiz titled Mind Grind, for schools in Pakistan.
- Indian Television Academy Milestone Award: Derek O’Brien was honoured with the prestigious ITA Milestone Award in 2010, for The Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest.
Derek is the eldest son of Joyce and Neil O'Brien. He has a daughter, Aanya, who is 16. He is married to Dr. Tonuca Basu (MD), who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.