The star currently resides in London with his wife Dawn O’Porter. The couple tied the knot in 2012, and have since welcomed two sons, Art and Valentine.
The Roscommon native spoke about the evolution of comedy on to social media.
“I wish there were more comedy shows on television, there seems to be fewer and fewer, which is a shame,” he told Ray Darcy on RTÉ Radio 1.
“I think viewing habits seem to have changed an awful lot, and obviously people are still funny and people are still finding comedy to watch, but they’re mostly doing it through social media.
“I don’t know, I don’t know, it might be cyclical as well, something comes in and something goes out and suddenly we’re obsessed with crime murders and all of this kind of thing, but that won’t last forever.”
He just wrapped filming on his latest project, the Sky dramedy, Small Town, Big Story with Paddy Considine, Eileen Walsh and Christina Hendricks.
The six-part series is currently shooting in Boyle, Co Roscommon, the actor’s home town.
The show is set in the fictional Irish town of Drumban and follows the lives of a few misfits who are forced to cohabitate with a Hollywood production threatening to expose a secret that has been kept hidden since the eve of the Millennium.
Wendy Patterson, played by Hendricks, is a local girl who has become a successful television producer and is responsible for the arrival of this massive production in town.
Drumbans’s local doctor and pillar of the community, Seamus Proctor, portrayed by Considine, enjoys a neat and well-ordered life until he is caught in the crossfire.
Mr O’Dowd said he only did a bit of acting himself and mainly stuck to directing and writing.
“I’m in the final throes of it right now. We’re just handing in episodes. So I can’t really tell if it’s good or bad anymore, but I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
“I come in and do a couple of episodes. It’s six hours altogether, and I’m in a couple of them.”
The Bridesmaids’ star also spoke about the Boyle Arts Festival, which is taking place until July 27. He spoke at the ceremony and said he had been “scribbling” his speech “endlessly” the morning of.
“It’s lovely, all the flowers around the town are so gorgeous,” O’Dowd said.
“And then the exhibition is open and then the festival is open and we’ve got 10 days of wonderful events. Maybe 50 or 60 different events altogether.”
He admitted that being in front of a home crowd was more nerve-wracking because it is “more important”.
“You definitely feel like you’re going to hear about it for the rest of your life,” he said.
