James Acaster

James William Acaster[1] was born in Kettering on 9 January 1985. He attended Montagu Secondary School and studied music at Northampton College.[2] He also sporadically worked at a drinks stand at Wicksteed Park during this time, igniting a longstanding fascination with industrial catering equipment.[3] He later worked as a teaching assistant in a school for autistic children,[4] using his free time to begin performing stand-up comedy.[5]

Acaster played the drums in various bands around his hometown prior to his comedy career, including The Wow! Scenario and the Capri-Sun Quartet. As a member of the latter, he used the stage name Sir William Strawberry. After The Wow! Scenario broke up, he pursued comedy while "deciding what [he] really wanted to do".[6] The Wow! Scenario recorded an album entitled Stand in the Star: A Verse and a Chorus in 2007, but did not release it; Acaster announced in 2017 that he had reunited with the band to finish the album and that it would be available the following year, but it remains unreleased.[7]

Acaster began performing stand-up comedy in 2008.[8] In 2009, he performed in a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with fellow comedians Josh Widdicombe and Nick Helm.[9] In 2010 and 2011 he supported Josie Long[10] and Milton Jones on tour respectively.[11]

In 2011 he also appeared on Russell Howard's Good News Extra and Dave's One Night Stand, and performed his first solo show at the Edinburgh Festival, Amongst Other Things[12][13], which he toured across the UK the following year. Acaster appeared in Australia Versus, in addition to Chris Addison's E4 programme Show and Tell, and was the co-host of My First Gig on Resonance FM radio.[14]

Acaster's 2012 Edinburgh show was called Prompt. It received a nomination from the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards for the best comedy show at the festival in 2012.

Acaster began appearing on his friend Josh Widdicombe's radio programme on XFM in 2012, initially being asked to share a story about a strange situation he had got himself into in the past. His first story proved popular enough that he was asked to continue sharing a story each week. These stories, dubbed "scrapes" by Josh and later "classic scrapes" by the programme's listeners, became a recurring segment known as 'James Acaster's Classic Scrapes'. Acaster's stories included going line dancing with his brother on Valentine's day, inadvertently scaring the actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in a Chiquito restaurant, and later being tormented by a friend's son in the form of pranks involving cabbage.

Acaster performed Prompt at 14 venues in England and Wales between January and March 2013, after which he appeared at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. He won the New Zealand Comedy Guild's best international act award in December 2013.

Acaster's 2013 Edinburgh show Lawnmower was staged at the Pleasance Courtyard. It was nominated for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award 2013 for the best comedy show. In September 2013, he made his first appearance on the BBC musical comedy panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He completed his UK tour of Lawnmower at a hometown gig in Kettering on 30 November 2013.

Acaster starred in various segments of radio, including the half-hour programme "James Acaster's Findings – Bread"[15] for BBC Radio 4, also featuring Nathaniel Metcalfe and Bryony Hannah. A series of four episodes of "James Acaster's Findings" was recorded in June and July 2014. The first of these episodes was broadcast on 5 November 2014. Acaster also regularly appeared on Josh Widdicombe's XFM radio show, where he was a fan favourite due to a segment involving anecdotes of his known as "classic scrapes" (most of which were subsequently compiled in a book in 2017). His series Sweet Home Ketteringa (2014) follows him on a journey of discovery around his hometown, exploring its history and nascent rivalries with proximal town Corby, sparked by a Primark store opening in the latter town.[16]

Acaster's 2014 Edinburgh show was called Recognise. The show was previewed in April and May in Australia and New Zealand,[17] where it won the New Zealand International Comedy Festival Award for Best International Show.[18] Recognise was again nominated for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award 2014 for the best comedy show – the third time in a row for Acaster.[19] It was performed at over 30 British venues during autumn 2014, including a two-week run at the Soho Theatre in December due to the success of the October dates at the same venue.

Acaster's 2015 Edinburgh show was called Represent, again performed at the Pleasance Courtyard.[20] It earned Acaster his 4th consecutive Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination for Best Show, becoming the second artist to do so after Al Murray. The UK tour of this show ran from October to December 2015, ending at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. Due to the show's success, Acaster took Represent to the Soho Theatre for a week-long run in March 2016.

In 2015 he won the Chortle awards for Best Breakthrough Act and Best Show for Recognise.[21][22]

Acaster's 2016 show was called Reset. It was previewed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and the New Zealand International Comedy Festival in Auckland and Wellington, both in April/May 2016, then at the Udderbelly Festival in June 2016, and finally at The Tringe Festival in Tring in July. Acaster performed this show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2016, where he became the first comedian to receive a fifth nomination for best show at the festival. In June 2016, Acaster appeared as a guest on Russell Howard's Stand Up Central. In July 2016, Acaster performed in the comedy tent at Latitude Festival. In September 2016, he wrote a pilot episode for a new sitcom, We The Jury, which was broadcast by the BBC.[23]

In 2017, Acaster took Recognise, Represent, and Reset to various venues, performing one show each night over three nights as The Trelogy.[24] A further show of previously performed material, Recap, was also developed to tie the shows together thematically. These four shows were filmed in September for a Netflix special.[25] His first book, James Acaster's Classic Scrapes, recounting the stories he told on Josh Widdicombe's XFM radio show and podcast, was published in August, followed by a book-reading tour in autumn 2017.[26] Classic Scrapes appeared on The Sunday Times best-seller list.[27] In November, he turned on the Christmas lights in Kettering.[28]

In March 2018, Acaster released his serialised Netflix stand-up comedy special, Repertoire. It consists of four separate hour-long stand-up comedy performances, all filmed in September 2017: "Recognise", "Represent", "Reset", and "Recap".[29] The initial response to Repertoire was very positive, with a rating of 8.3 on IMDb.[30] In July 2018, Acaster performed on the Comedy Stage at the Cornbury Music Festival.[31] He currently presents a weekly podcast series with Ed Gamble called Off Menu.[32] In the podcast, Gamble and Acaster invite a special guest to discuss their dream starter, main course, side, dessert and drink.[33]

In 2019, Acaster won the Chortle Award for Best Show with Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999.[34][35][36][37][38] Perfect Sound Whatever is Acaster's second book, about an obsessive challenge that he undertook in 2017 to collect as much music released in 2016 as possible.[39] It was published by Headline Publishing Group in August 2019.[40][41] In 2019, Acaster won the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award, making him the first UK comedian to do so in nine years.[42] Acaster's podcast with BBC Sounds, James Acaster's Perfect Sounds, started in April 2020.[43]

Acaster, Romesh Ranganathan, and James Corden voiced three mice and appeared as three transformed footmen in the 2021 film Cinderella.[44] In 2022, he published the book James Acaster's Guide to Quitting Social Media: Vol. 1.

He dated English comedian Louise Ford until she left him for Rowan Atkinson in 2013.[45][46] He then dated New Zealand comedian Rose Matafeo from 2014 to 2017.[45][47]

Acaster has commented on his struggle with depression and seeks regular therapy.[48]

• Official website
• James Acaster at IMDb
• Sweet Home Ketteringa – 2014–2015 comic docu-series presented by Acaster about his hometown
• Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast – James Acaster on YouTube, October 2014