John Oliver (comedian)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| John Oliver | |
|---|---|
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| John Oliver, 2007 | |
| Born | 23 April 1977 Birmingham, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Genres | Political satire |
| Notable works and roles | The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Community,The Bugle, Political Animal, The Department |
John Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is an Emmy-winning British stand-up comedian, actor and correspondent/writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has worked extensively with Andy Zaltzman; their work together includes Political Animal, The Department and The Bugle.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Birmingham, raised in Liverpool and educated in Bedford.[1] He is a graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge[2], where he studied English and was vice-president of the Cambridge Footlights for 1997/98, when the president was Richard Ayoade. He also featured in that year's revue, Between a Rock and a Hard Place.[3]
[edit] Career
[edit] Stand-up
Oliver first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001 as part of The Comedy Zone, a late night showcase of newer acts. He performed his debut solo show in 2002 and returned in 2003. In 2004 and 2005 he collaborated with Andy Zaltzman, each year performing a show as a double act and co-hosting Political Animal, a stand-up show with different acts performing political material.
After relocating to New York to work on The Daily Show, Oliver began performing stand-up in small clubs around the city, later moving on to headline shows in larger venues.[4]
Oliver's first stand-up special—entitled John Oliver: Terrifying Times—debuted on Comedy Central on 20 April 2008 and was later released on DVD.[5]
[edit] The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
John Oliver joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its Senior British Correspondent in July 2006. "I've always striven to be both an entertainer and an irritant. I think that's why I feel so at home on The Daily Show," quipped Oliver in a January 2009 interview.[6]
[edit] The Bugle
Since October 2007 Oliver has co-hosted The Bugle, a weekly satirical comedy podcast for TimesOnline, with Andy Zaltzman.[7]
[edit] Other work
Oliver wrote and presented the current BBC America campaign to have viewers use closed captioning (subtitles). Shown in brief segments before shows, "The following program contains accents you would have heard a lot more if you hadn't thrown our tea into Boston Harbor," says one. "Not even British people can follow the British accent 100 percent of the time. Therefore you, like me, might want to use closed-captioning." Oliver has begun using some of these jokes in his current stand up routine.[8]
John Oliver was a semi-regular panellist on the first two series of Mock the Week and frequently appeared on Fighting Talk.
Oliver appeared briefly in the series Green Wing as a car salesman.
In 2008 Oliver was given his first motion picture role, playing Dick Pants in The Love Guru.[9]
Oliver performed various roles in the 2009 Comedy Central series Important Things with Demetri Martin.
Oliver is appearing in the NBC comedy Community as Dr. Ian Duncan, a psychology professor.[10]
John Oliver, along with fellow Daily Show writer Rory Albanese, signed a blind script deal with Paramount in 2009. [11]
John Oliver will be hosting a six-episode stand up series that features himself and several other comedians. It is set to premiere January 8th, 2010 on Comedy Central. [12]
[edit] Personal life
John Oliver currently lives in New York City with his girlfriend Kate Norley, an Iraq war veteran. Oliver has said that they met at the 2008 Republican National Convention where he was doing a piece for The Daily Show and Norley was campaigning with Vets for Freedom. [13]
Oliver is a fan of English football club Liverpool[14] and the New York Mets baseball team. [15]
Oliver's status as an immigrant placed certain constraints on what he could do in his adopted country, but also provided him with comedic material as he poked fun at the opacity and occasional absurdity of the process of attaining US citizenship. Oliver was one of the many writers on the picket lines during the Writer's Guild strike which brought The Daily Show to a halt,[16] but he appeared on the show upon its resuming production on 7 January 2008. During a sketch, he pointed out that he is in the U.S. on a visa which requires him not to strike while the show is in production and violation of the terms of the visa would be grounds for deportation. When asked about his immigration status in early 2009, Oliver said, "It's an ongoing, and slightly unsettling, battle to be honest. I tried engraving 'Give me your tired, your poor, and your aspiring comic performers' into the base of the Statue of Liberty, but apparently that's not legally binding."[6] In an episode of The Bugle released 31 October 2009, Oliver announced that he "finally got approved for [his] green card," noting that now he can "get arrested filming bits for The Daily Show".[17]
[edit] References
- ^ "Interview with John Oliver - The Guardian". 23 July 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jul/23/mondaymediasection.broadcasting4. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
- ^ http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/1997-8/weekly/5744/5.html
- ^ "Cambridge Footlights Alumni 1990-1999". http://www.footlights.org/1990.html. Retrieved April 21 2009.
- ^ "Oliver twisted - Time Out New York Issue 593". February 8 2007. http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/comedy/2529/oliver-twisted. Retrieved April 21 2009.
- ^ "John Oliver: Terrifying Times". comedycentral.com. http://shop.comedycentral.com/detail.php?p=71408. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
- ^ a b "John Oliver: Comic Crumpet". SuicideGirls.com. 13 January 2009. http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/John+Oliver%3A+Comic+Crumpet/. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
- ^ "The Bugle - Audio Newspaper For A Visual World". timesonline.co.uk. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/audio_video/podcasts/the_bugle/.
- ^ "Translated from the British". TVWeek. 2007-05-21. http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/blink/2007/05/translated_from_the_british.php. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
- ^ "Oliver's movie break" (in English). Chortle.co.uk. 2007-09-05. http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2007/09/05/5749/olivers_movie_break. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
- ^ "Rating NBC's new fall shows: 'Parenthood,' a 'Trauma,' a 'Community,' '100 Questions,' and oh 'Mercy'!" (in English). Entertainment Weekly. 2009-05-04. http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/05/nbc-new-fall-sh.html. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- ^ "'Daily Show' duo in Paramount deal" (in English). The Hollywood Reporter. 2009-08-05. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3idb676dc68387c3add14f73cc4971cd74. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
- ^ "Comedy Central gives John Oliver his own stand-up comedy series" (in English). Los Angeles Times. 2009-11-18. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/11/comedy-central-gives-john-oliver-his-own-stand-up-comedy-series.html. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
- ^ "John Oliver Radio Interview". 2009-06-03. http://jumbodump.com/2009/06/03/john-oliver-radio-interview-3/. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
- ^ "‘Daily Show’ Correspondent John Oliver Fears We're in the End Times". 2007-04-10. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/04/john_oliver_fears_the_end_times.html. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
- ^ "The Bugle #93". 2009-10-16. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/the_bugle/article6878690.ece. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
- ^ "John Oliver, Writer". 2007-10-15. http://gothamist.com/2007/11/15/john_oliver_wri.php. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
- ^ "The Bugle #94: Does the EU really want El Presidente Blair?". Times Online. 31 October 2009. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/the_bugle/article6895545.ece. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Oliver (comedian) |
- John Oliver at the Internet Movie Database
- John Oliver Biography at The Daily Show
- John Oliver at Comedy Central (Comedians)
- Interview with John Oliver at SuicideGirls.com
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