Russell Howard
Encyclopedia
Russell Joseph Howard (born March 23rd 1980) is an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 comedian best known for his TV show Russell Howard's Good News
Russell Howard's Good News
Russell Howard's Good News is a British comedy and topical news show broadcast on BBC Three and, since the show's fourth series, BBC HD. Hosted by comedian Russell Howard, he offers his commentary on the news of the week using mostly standup, but including sketches and guest appearances from people...

and his appearances on the topical panel TV show Mock The Week
Mock the Week
Mock the Week is a British topical celebrity panel game hosted by Dara Ó Briain that launched in 2005. The game is influenced by improvised topical stand-up comedy, with several rounds requiring players to deliver answers on unexpected subjects on the spur of the moment.It is made by independent...

. He won "Best Compère" at the 2006 Chortle Awards and was nominated for an if.comedy award for his 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
-Events:2006 was the first Fringe following the introduction of the new legislation banning smoking indoors. During a photocall at the Assembly Rooms for a play in which he was playing Winston Churchill, the actor Mel Smith lit a cigar, flouting the ban...

 show Wandering.

Early life

Russell has two younger siblings, twins, Kerry, an actress, and Daniel; a systems analyst
Systems analyst
A systems analyst researches problems, plans solutions, recommends software and systems, and coordinates development to meet business or other requirements. They will be familiar with multiple variety of programming languages, operating systems, and computer hardware platforms...

 and a sufferer of epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

, a fact which Russell often references during his act.

Russell grew up in Four Marks
Four Marks
Four Marks is a large village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is southwest of Alton, on the A31 road....

 and later Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

. He was educated at Flitwick Lower School
Flitwick Lower School
The Flitwick Lower School is a primary school that caters for both sexes between the ages of 4–9 for the majority of the civil parish of Flitwick. Flitwick Lower opened in 1981 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2006. The school has achieved a number of awards including the Healthy Schools...

, Bedford Modern School
Bedford Modern School
Bedford Modern School is a British co-educational independent school in the Harpur area of Bedford, in the county of Bedfordshire, in England.Bedford Modern comprises a junior school and a senior school...

 which he attended for a year at the age of 8, Perins School
Perins School
Perins School is a community Sports College and secondary school in New Alresford, Hampshire, England...

 and Alton College
Alton College
Alton College is a sixth form college located in Alton, Hampshire, England. As well as being a sixth form, the college provides an adult education service to the local population as well as catering for students with disabilities from nearby Treloar College...

 in Hampshire, then at the University of the West of England
University of the West of England
The University of the West of England is a university based in the English city of Bristol. Its main campus is at Frenchay, about five miles north of the city centre...

 in Bristol, where he studied economics, attaining a 2:1.

TV and radio work

In 2004 he was commissioned by BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 to write, sing and perform on the comedy series The Milk Run. Howard has also appeared on the shows Banter
Banter (radio show)
Banter is a radio programme that is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the UK, starring Andrew Collins and Richard Herring. The pilot and the first 2 series were broadcast from August 2005 to November 2006, and a third series was broadcast in April and May 2008. There have been 19 half-hour episodes so far...

(hosted by Andrew Collins
Andrew Collins (broadcaster)
Andrew Collins is the creator and writer of Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky. His TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out .-Personal life:Collins was a member of the Labour Party between the late 1980s and early 1990s, leaving after Labour's...

) and Political Animal for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

.

Until 2010, Howard was a regular panelist on Mock the Week. He has also appeared on 8 Out Of 10 Cats
8 Out of 10 Cats
8 out of 10 Cats is a television comedy panel game made by Zeppotron for Channel 4. It was first broadcast on 3 June 2005. The show is based on statistics and opinion polls, and draws on polls produced by a variety of organizations and new polls commissioned for the programme, carried out by...

, Would I Lie To You?
Would I Lie To You? (TV series)
Would I Lie to You? is a comedy panel game made by Zeppotron for BBC One. It was first broadcast on 16 June 2007.-Format:The show was presented by Angus Deayton in 2007 and 2008, and by Rob Brydon from 2009 onwards...

, Live At The Apollo, The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008
The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008
The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008 was the fourth show in the Secret Policeman's Balls series of benefit shows for Amnesty International.In July 2008, Amnesty announced that it would present another show in its long-running series Like its immediate predecessor, The Secret Policeman's Ball 2006 the...

, Law of the Playground
Law of the Playground
Law of the Playground is the name of a website, book and television series which features members of the publics memories about school life. It styles itself "The least coherent encyclopaedia of playground insults on the internet"-Website:...

and Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...

(Series 18, Episode 2 and Series 20, Episode 4).

He was one of several comedians picked as the best comedy talent from the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe that recorded 10–15-minute spots for the 'Edinburgh and Beyond show' which was aired on Paramount Comedy 1
Paramount Comedy 1
Comedy Central in the United Kingdom and Ireland is a localised version of Comedy Central which first began in the United States in the 1990s. The television channel is available through the Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV in the United Kingdom, Sky Ireland, UPC Ireland and Magnet Networks in the...

 in the autumn of 2006. The show was filmed at The Bloomsbury Theatre. From 2009, he took over as compère of this show from Al Murray
Al Murray
Alastair James Hay "Al" Murray , is a British comedian best known for his stand-up persona, The Pub Landlord, a stereotypical xenophobic public house licensee. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy...

.

From November 2006 to July 2008, Russell co-hosted The Russell Howard Show
The Russell Howard Show
The Russell Howard and Jon Richardson Show was a UK radio show on digital station BBC 6 Music that aired from 10.00am - 1.00pm on Sundays. It was presented by comedians Russell Howard and Jon Richardson...

on BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....

 with fellow comedian Jon Richardson
Jon Richardson (entertainer)
Jon Joel Richardson is a British comedian.Jon co-hosted a Sunday morning radio show on BBC 6 Music with fellow comedian and friend Russell Howard, and continued to present the show himself after Howard left, until 7 March 2010...

 in a Sunday morning slot previously hosted by Russell Brand
Russell Brand
Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...

. The show continued to air, without Howard, until March 2010. He has since explained that his main reason for leaving the show was that he finds radio "really restrictive" and "I gorge off the audience as a performer, but you can't gauge a reaction on the radio."

Russell was commissioned to make a comedy show called Russell Howard's Good News
Russell Howard's Good News
Russell Howard's Good News is a British comedy and topical news show broadcast on BBC Three and, since the show's fourth series, BBC HD. Hosted by comedian Russell Howard, he offers his commentary on the news of the week using mostly standup, but including sketches and guest appearances from people...

, aimed at under-25s, for BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...

. The first episode aired on 22 October 2009 and the show ran for seven episodes as well as a "Best Of" show and a Christmas Special. It went on to become BBC Three's highest ever rating entertainment series. In the show, he gave his take on the week's major news stories, as well as giving attention to some of the more light-hearted stories of the week. Two more series of the show were commissioned, with the second series starting on March 25, 2010. A fourth series began on 24 March 2011 on BBC Three.

While recording an episode of Good News which aired on 17th November 2011, he broke his hand when a stunt went wrong, being that Russell tried to do push ups on a collapsible chair which inevitably collapsed. He then revealed on the following show some of the texts sent by his friends and family following the accident.

He made his United States television début on the August 3, 2011 episode of Conan.

Charity work

He appeared at Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...

's LIVEstock comedy and music event at the Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo is a major entertainment venue located in Hammersmith, London. Designed by Robert Cromie in Art Deco style, it opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema, being re-named the Hammersmith Odeon in 1962...

 in support of the green campaign group's Food Chain Campaign for planet-friendly farming, on 12 November 2009.

For Sport Relief
Sport Relief
Sport Relief is a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, which brings together the worlds of sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world's poorest countries...

 2010 he took part in the BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

 Sport Relief Million Pound Bike Ride, with David Walliams
David Walliams
David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...

, Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr is an English-Irish comedian and humourist. He is known for his deadpan delivery and dark humour. He is also a writer, actor and presenter of radio and television....

, Fearne Cotton
Fearne Cotton
Fearne Cotton is an English television and radio presenter who is known for presenting a number of popular TV programmes such as Top of the Pops and the Red Nose Day telethon. In 2007, she became the first regular female presenter of BBC Radio 1's Chart Show...

, Miranda Hart
Miranda Hart
Miranda Katharine Hart Dyke , known professionally as Miranda Hart, is an English actress, writer and stand-up comedienne. She writes and stars in the BBC sitcom Miranda...

, Patrick Kielty
Patrick Kielty
Patrick Kielty is an Irish comedian and television personality from Dundrum, Northern Ireland.-Background:He was affected by The Troubles in Northern Ireland. On 25 January 1988 his father, businessman Jack Kielty, was shot dead by the Ulster Defence Association /"Ulster Freedom Fighters" , a...

, and Davina McCall
Davina McCall
Davina McCall is an English television presenter and actress, most notable as the presenter of the UK version of Big Brother up until its move to Channel 5.- Early life :...

. They cycled from John O'Groats in Scotland to Land's End in 4 days trying to raise 1 million pounds.

In April 2010, Howard ran the Virgin London Marathon
2010 London Marathon
The 2010 London Marathon took place on Sunday, 25 April 2010. Up to 36,000 people are thought to have taken part, a record for the event. The men's event was won by Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia with a time of 2:05:19 and the women's event by Liliya Shobukhova of Russia with a time of 2:22:00...

 for the first time with both his brother and sister, to raise money for the National Society for Epilepsy – a condition from which his brother suffers. He completed the 26 mile course in 4 hours and 15 minutes, beating his target time of 5 hours. Sponsorship has raised over £7,000 to date.

Live comedy

A show from his 2007 Adventures tour was released on DVD on 17 November 2008, under the title "Russell Howard Live". The show on the DVD was recorded at The Bloomsbury Theatre.

Howard started touring his show Dingledodies in September 2008 and played various dates through to December. Due to overwhelming demand he further extended the tour twice into 2009. It sold in excess of 125,000 tickets, including three sell-out shows at the Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo is a major entertainment venue located in Hammersmith, London. Designed by Robert Cromie in Art Deco style, it opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema, being re-named the Hammersmith Odeon in 1962...

 as well as several large arenas such as Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium.-History:...

 and Manchester's MEN Arena. The DVD of this tour was released on 9 November 2009 and features a recording of the show from the Brighton Dome
Brighton Dome
The Brighton Dome is an arts venue in Brighton, England that contains the Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre. All three venues are linked to the rest of the Royal Pavilion Estate by an underground tunnel to the Royal Pavilion in Pavilion Gardens and through shared corridors to...

.

He was named "Best Theatre Show" at the 2009 Chortle Comedy Awards.

Howard performed 10 UK dates between 11 and 20 December 2009 for his "Big Rooms and Belly Laughs" tour.

In 2011 the far right English Defence League
English Defence League
The English Defence League is a far-right street protest movement which opposes what it considers to be a spread of Islamism, Sharia law and Islamic extremism in the UK. The EDL uses street marches to protest against Islamic extremism...

 threatened to picket one of his live gigs in retaliation at material poking fun at them in one of his TV performances.

He is currently performing his new arena tour for 2011, titled Right Here Right Now. The tour sold out in days and was extended twice, with new dates in December 2011 announced on 3 May 2011.

{| class="wikitable" border="1"

It was reported in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

  that he earned £4 million in 2009 alone, which he denies.

Television

  • Never Mind the Buzzcocks
    Never Mind the Buzzcocks
    Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...

    BBC 2 (2006)
  • Mock The Week
    Mock the Week
    Mock the Week is a British topical celebrity panel game hosted by Dara Ó Briain that launched in 2005. The game is influenced by improvised topical stand-up comedy, with several rounds requiring players to deliver answers on unexpected subjects on the spur of the moment.It is made by independent...

    BBC 2 (2006–2010)
  • Never Mind the Buzzcocks
    Never Mind the Buzzcocks
    Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...

    BBC 2 (2007)
  • Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive
    Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive
    Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive is a British television show, first aired on BBC Three in July 2006. Devised by Paul Duddridge, it concerns the making of a comedy panel game show called Annually Retentive, themed around historical events, and hosted by Welsh comedian Rob Brydon...

    BBC Three (2007)
  • Would I Lie To You?
    Would I Lie To You? (TV series)
    Would I Lie to You? is a comedy panel game made by Zeppotron for BBC One. It was first broadcast on 16 June 2007.-Format:The show was presented by Angus Deayton in 2007 and 2008, and by Rob Brydon from 2009 onwards...

    BBC 1 (2007)
  • Live at the Apollo BBC 1 (2007)
  • Law of the Playground
    Law of the Playground
    Law of the Playground is the name of a website, book and television series which features members of the publics memories about school life. It styles itself "The least coherent encyclopaedia of playground insults on the internet"-Website:...

    Channel 4 (2008)
  • The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008
    The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008
    The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008 was the fourth show in the Secret Policeman's Balls series of benefit shows for Amnesty International.In July 2008, Amnesty announced that it would present another show in its long-running series Like its immediate predecessor, The Secret Policeman's Ball 2006 the...

    Channel 4 (2008)
  • 8 out of 10 Cats
    8 Out of 10 Cats
    8 out of 10 Cats is a television comedy panel game made by Zeppotron for Channel 4. It was first broadcast on 3 June 2005. The show is based on statistics and opinion polls, and draws on polls produced by a variety of organizations and new polls commissioned for the programme, carried out by...

    Channel 4 (2008)
  • Live at the Apollo BBC 1 (2009)
  • Russell Howard's Good News
    Russell Howard's Good News
    Russell Howard's Good News is a British comedy and topical news show broadcast on BBC Three and, since the show's fourth series, BBC HD. Hosted by comedian Russell Howard, he offers his commentary on the news of the week using mostly standup, but including sketches and guest appearances from people...

    BBC Three (2009–)
  • Conan (2011)
  • Children in Need 2011
    Children in Need 2011
    Children in Need 2011 is a campaign held in the United Kingdom to raise money for Children in Need. 2011 marked the 31st anniversary of the appeal which culminated in a live broadcast on BBC One which began on the evening of Friday 18th November and ran until the early hours of Saturday 19th...

    (2011)

Radio

  • The Milk Run BBC Radio 1 (2004)
  • Political Animal
    Political Animal
    Political Animal is a radio show hosted by British comedians John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman in which various stand-up comedians perform political material....

    BBC Radio 4 (2004)
  • Banter
    Banter (radio show)
    Banter is a radio programme that is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the UK, starring Andrew Collins and Richard Herring. The pilot and the first 2 series were broadcast from August 2005 to November 2006, and a third series was broadcast in April and May 2008. There have been 19 half-hour episodes so far...

    BBC Radio 4 (2005)
  • The Russell Howard Show
    The Russell Howard Show
    The Russell Howard and Jon Richardson Show was a UK radio show on digital station BBC 6 Music that aired from 10.00am - 1.00pm on Sundays. It was presented by comedians Russell Howard and Jon Richardson...

    BBC 6 Music (2006–2008)

Stand-Up DVDs

{| class="wikitable"
!Title
!Release Date
!Notes
|-
| Live
| 17 November 2008
| Live at London's Bloomsbury Theatre
|-
| Live 2 – Dingledodies
| 9 November 2009
| Live at Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

's Dome
Brighton Dome
The Brighton Dome is an arts venue in Brighton, England that contains the Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre. All three venues are linked to the rest of the Royal Pavilion Estate by an underground tunnel to the Royal Pavilion in Pavilion Gardens and through shared corridors to...


|-
| Right Here Right Now
| 14 November 2011
| Live at London's Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo
Hammersmith Apollo is a major entertainment venue located in Hammersmith, London. Designed by Robert Cromie in Art Deco style, it opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema, being re-named the Hammersmith Odeon in 1962...


|}

External links

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