Chris O’Dowd’s time seems to have arrived. The Roscommon actor/funnyman is gonna be all over the place in the next few weeks, first thanks to his co-starring role in the new Judd Apatow film This Is Forty, out at the end of the month. Then he’ll be the big guy in Girls, the annoying hip chick show on HBO which returns for a second season in January.

O’Dowd, who was awarded the Freedom of Roscommon last month [“not sure what it entails, but I’m presuming maidens are involved,” he tweeted], thinks the world of Girls creator, writer, star and It Girl Lena Dunham.  He guested last season as a guy who wanted a threesome with two of the gals, and wound up marrying the ultra-annoying one, Jessa, instead.

He says of Dunham, “Her writing is so great, and I think this is a golden age for female comedy writers, it's a fun little part to play. I feel very lucky. [The Girls cast] they're all just lovely people, very open and collaborative.”

Speaking to Grazia in the U.K., O’Dowd added that chicks usually can only be cute or funny, but not both at the same time – an observation that Dunham may take issue with.  “I think there's something in the fact that it's hard to be good looking and funny. You have to have an oddball quality; people have to sympathize with you to find you funny,” he said.

One of the world’s so-called hottest actresses, Megan Fox, is a big fan of O’Dowd. They worked together in the film Friends With Benefits, and now they co-star in This Is Forty.  New mom Fox says her Irish pal is a blast.

“Oh Chris is a genius. He’s a complete genius and one of my favorite comic actors. We had so much fun working together,” she said.

“I loved him in Bridesmaids and in Girls and can’t wait to see more of what his mad mind comes up with.  He and Jason Segel just cracked me up all the time we were working on this movie.”

O’Dowd and Dunham are key players in the Apatow stable of go-to actors (the prolific producer/director also produces Girls).  In This Is Forty O’Dowd plays the work pal of Paul Rudd’s main character, and he gets to swim in a pool with a bikini-clad Fox and Segel. What could be wrong with that?

“I've been lucky enough to work with those guys a couple of times now, but rather than being in the Judd house, I'm more like the window cleaner looking in and masturbating,” he joked to GQ magazine earlier this year about his place in Apatow World (you’ll remember that he first came to prominence here when he played Kristen Wiig’s love interest in the blockbuster Bridesmaids last year; Apatow produced, of course.)

O’Dowd made a bride out of his long time girlfriend, British comic and TV host Dawn Porter, in the summer.

"Getting married is kind of like we've been through an earthquake," he told Grazia. "And we're the survivors. A really sexy earthquake."

Ah, but if he could stray, would he? In a minute he joked.

"Beyoncé is the most amazing woman in the world. Waaay before Dawn," he said. "If Beyoncé looked at me twice I would forget Dawn's name."