Clive Anderson was born on December 10, 1952 in Middlesex England. He studied law at Cambridge and became a criminal lawyer. While he was a lawyer he practiced warm up comedy and wrote comedy scripts. In 1980's he wrote for various radio and TV comedies. He also wrote several newspaper and magazine columns and articles. He was also the President of Footlights and a member from 1973-1978.

In 1988 he became the host of the radio version of Whose Line is it Anyway. After a year he became the host of the TV version. He hosted through the entire British run of the show, including the Hollywood editions. When the show came to the U.S. for good in 1998 he was not asked back to host. In 1989 he was given his own talk show, "Clive Anderson Talks Back" which was changed to 'Clive Anderson Talk," and changed again to "Clive Anderson All Talk." In 1991 he was awarded the Comedy Presenter of the year by the British television industry. In 1994 he won the Channel 4 presenter award from the British Comedy Awards.

Clive now lives in England with his wife Jane, an AIDS specialist, and his three children, Isabella, Flora and Edmund.