Hugh Laurie was born and raised in Oxford, where he attended the Dragon School before going on to Eton and then to Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he read Archaeology and Anthropology. His father had won an Olympic gold medal in rowing, and he himself was a rower in school and in his university, taking part in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race of 1980. Cambridge lost that year by five feet.

During his first year at university, Hugh Laurie dated Emma Thompson. He also joined the famous Cambridge Footlights, which has been the starting point for many successful British comedians. When Footlights brought their end-of-year revue to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1980, Laurie met Stephen Fry. In his final year, 1981, he was the president of the Footlights Club, while Emma Thompson was the vice-president. Laurie, Fry and Thompson later parodied themselves as the University Challenge representatives of "Footlights College, Oxbridge" in "Bambi", an episode of The Young Ones.

Hugh Laurie as Lieutenant George in Blackadder Goes Forth.Fry and Laurie had several series of their own as a double act and starred in the television series Jeeves and Wooster, an adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories. Laurie played Jeeves' employer, the amiable twit Bertie Wooster, a role for which his talent as a pianist and singer came in handy.

However, like Fry, Laurie has branched out into a career as an actor in both comic roles (such as the Blackadder series with Rowan Atkinson as Prince George and Lieutenant George) and also had more serious roles in such films as Peter's Friends and Sense and Sensibility. Other film appearances include Maybe Baby and Stuart Little. In 1996, his book The Gun Seller, a humorous novel of suspense, was published and became a best seller. Laurie is currently working on a second novel, The Paper Soldier.

Since 2002, Laurie has been a familiar face in a range of British television dramas, guest starring that year in two episodes of the first season of the spy thriller series Spooks on BBC One. In 2003 he starred in and also directed ITV's comedy-drama series Fortysomething. He also voiced a character in the Family Guy episode "One If By Clam, Two If By Sea."

Although Laurie has been a household name in Britain since the 1980s, he only really came to the attention of the American public in 2004, when he first starred as the cantankerous physician Dr. Gregory House in the popular FOX medical drama, House, M.D.. Laurie uses an American accent in this role, and is convincing enough as an American that director Bryan Singer, upon viewing Laurie's audition tape, pointed to him as an example of a compelling American actor.

In July 2005, Hugh Laurie was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in House, M.D.. Although he didn't win, he did win a Golden Globe in 2006 for his work on the same series.

Hugh Laurie married Jo Green in June 1989. They live in north London with their daughter Rebecca and two sons, Bill and Charlie.