Artists and Comedians
Simon Munnery
“One of the most original and inventive comedians in the country” - The Observer
Simon grew up in Watford before attending Cambridge University in the mid eighties. Early performances while at university included a double-act called God and Jesus (with Stephen Cheeke, now a Bristol University lecturer). In 1992, he appeared in The Dum Show at the Edinburgh Festival alongside Steve Coogan, Patrick Marber, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. Though he first came to wider attention as host of experimental night Cluub Zarathustra in 1994.
Throughout the nineties, he performed lengthy sell-out runs at West End theatres (Lyric, Soho Theatre, ICA) and international festivals (Melbourne, Adelaide, Aspen, New York) of his wildly eccentric shows featuring alongside stand-up his characters including Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, The League Against Tedium and Buckethead. During this time he was nominated for the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival and the Barry Award at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
In 1996, he starred in ITV’s flagship stand-up show Saturday Live, won a Sony Gold Radio Award for his BBC Radio 1 series Alan Parker’s 29 Minutes Of Truth and was nominated for a British Comedy Award for his BBC2 show (co-written with Graham Linehan) London Shouting. He also shot a pilot TV version of Cluub Zarathustra, entitled Club Z for Channel 4 although this was never broadcast. He built upon this breakthrough success with several vehicles for his League Against Tedium character, including a Radio 1 series in 1997, the UK Play (BBC3) series FuturTV in 1999 and, most notably, the BBC2 series Attention Scum in 2001 – which was directed by Stewart Lee and nominated for a Golden Rose Of Montreux Award. In 2003 he had his own Radio 4 series, Where Did It All Go Wrong?. He also contributed to the Sit Down Comedy book, started his own weekly radio show on Resonance FM and appeared alongside Steve Coogan in BBC2’s The Private Life Of Samuel Pepys. Simon’s other notable acting roles as historical figures include explorer Samuel Johnson (Johnson and Boswell – Late But Live, 2007) and Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth and Raleigh – Late But Live, 2008).
The following year, 2004, saw a second series for Radio 4 and the first of what became six consecutive years of Simon Munnery’s Annual General Meeting show at the Edinburgh Festival. During this period, and indeed to present day, Simon has continued to perform all over the world and return to London’s Soho Theatre with a new show every 18 months. His cannon of work has grown to include two DVD releases (IAMTV and Hello, both in 2007, with a third to be released in early 2011), a book of one-liners and quips (How To Live, 2005), contributions to Banksy’s book Wall & Piece (2007) and an appearance as Alan Parker on dance music group The Orb’s Grey Clouds (Distinct’ive Records, 2007). The end of 2007 saw him awarded status as one of Great Britain’s Official National Treasures.
In recent years, he has made a raft of TV and radio appearances including BBC3’s Comic Side Of Seven Days, Radio 4’s Genius, ITV2’s Comedy Cuts and, in 2010, BBC2’s Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle. 2011 sees a week-long run at London’s Soho Theatre as part of a 40-date UK tour of Simon’s latest live show, Simon Munnery: Self-Employed.
