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Jason Manford

Jason Manford was born May 26 1981 in Salford, Lancashire. He is an English writer, comedian, actor, radio and television presenter of Irish descent. He began his career in 1999, while working at the Buzz Comedy Club upstairs at the Southern Hotel in Chorlton, Manchester. Jason was collecting glasses when a performer didn’t arrive for an evening set, Jason, who was 17 at the time stepped in to fill the gap, an event which marked the beginning of his comedy career. Six gigs later he was crowned The City Life North West Comedian of the Year.

Jason supports Manchester City FC and has a season ticket with his Dad and three brothers. He cites Billy Connolly as the first comedian he saw when he was 9 years old, and as the very first inspiration for him to become a comedian. He has a love for family friendly entertainers like Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson. Later on comics like Jasper Carrott and Dave Allen influenced Jason, but it wasn’t until he saw Peter Kay he decided to have a go himself.

After winning several smaller awards, Jason was nominated for the Perrier Award in Edinburgh in 2005 for his show ‘Urban Legends’, a stand up show about those stories that always seem to happen to a friend of a friend. Jason did the comedy clubs of the UK, including the Comedy Store and Jongleurs and did many gigs abroad as far a field as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and China.
 His first major television appearance was when he was a guest on the Channel 4 panel show, 8 out of 10 cats, presented by Jimmy Carr, he was on Dave Spikey’s team alongside Piers Morgan, and would later go on to replace Dave Spikey as Team Captain in 2007 and continued in the role until 2011.

Since then, Jason has presented Sky Three’s ‘Premier League Allstars Extra Time’, Channel 4’s ‘Tonightly’, performed at the Royal Variety Performance, on ‘Channel 4’s Comedy Gala’, ITV1’s ‘The Comedy Annual 2010’, BBC1’s ‘Would I Lie to You’, become a regular on ITV1’s ‘Odd One In’ with Peter Andre and given his voice to BBC1’s highly acclaimed ‘Walk on the Wild Side’.

2011 has seen Jason host his own comedy variety show ‘Comedy Rocks’ on ITV1, win ‘Born to Shine’ with his amazing operatic skills, host comedy talent show ‘Show Me The Funny’ and host an episode of BBC1’s ‘Live at the Apollo’ to name but a few TV projects and his highly anticipated autobiography ‘Brung Up Proper’ was published in September 2011.

Jason began hosting a radio breakfast show on XFM Manchester from January 5th 2007 and which lasted until May 15, 2008. In 2009 he hosted ‘Jason Manford and Friends’ on BBC Radio 2, which brought the best comedians from over 750 acts at that years Edinburgh Fringe to Radio 2 listeners. 2011 has seen Jason cover Danny Baker’s 5Live show on the August bank holiday weekend, with sidekick and friend Justin Moorhouse.

He is also currently on his second National tour, ‘Off On Tour We Go’, which started in July 2010 and will finish at London’s O2 Arena on 29th November 2011. His second DVD, Jason Manford Live, as well as autobiography ‘Brung Up Proper’ are out now.

Jason is available for corporate hire, and has worked for many large UK companies, entertaining as well as hosting award ceremonies

“A true master of observational comedy”  BBC

“The people’s comedy of Jason Manford will never go out of fashion” The Scotsman

Television credits include:
2012: A Funny Old Year ITV1
Moving On LA Productions
Little Cracker Sky1 / Left Bank Pictures
Only Joking Sky1
Celebrity Juice ITV2
The Rob Brydon Show BBC2
QI BBC2
Eurogeddon: Why England Shouldn’t Win Euro 2012 ITV4
The Matt Lucas Awards BBC1
Comedy Annual (2010 & 2011) ITV1
Starlings Sky1
The Mad Bad Ad Show Channel 4
Who Wants to be A Millionaire: Live ITV1
Epic Win BBC1
Chris Moyles Quiz Night Channel 4
Never Mind the Buzzcocks BBC2
The Royal Variety Performance (2009 & 2011) ITV1
Just A Minute BBC2
Argumental Dave
Mastermind BBC2
Born to Shine ITV1
Show Me The Funny ITV1
Help For Heroes BBC1
The One Show BBC1
Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford ITV1
The Channel 4 Comedy Gala Channel 4
A Comedy Roast Channel 4
A Question of Sport – Sport Relief Special BBC 1
As Seen On TV BBC 1
Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow BBC 1
Walk on the Wild Side BBC 1
Secret Policeman’s Ball 2008 Channel 4
Live At The Apollo BBC 1
Tonightly Channel 4
Premier League All Stars: Extra Time Sky 3
Shameless Channel 4
8 Out of 10 Cats Channel 4
Gideon’s Daughter BBC1
Modern Worries E4
Cutting It BBC1
Ideal BBC3
Edinburgh and Beyond Paramount
BBC New Comedy Awards BBC 1
The Best of Manchester Comedy BBC2

Film credits include:
Seven Sundays Influential
Unlucky Girl Aspects
Go on, I Dare Ya GMP
Terror GMP
Higher Education Aspects

Radio credits include:
Just A Minute BBC Radio 4
The Danny Baker Show (cover) Radio 5Live
NQ48 BBC Radio 4
Colin Murphy’s Great Unanswered Questions BBC Radio Northern Ireland
The Breakfast Show with Jason Manford XFM Manchester
Loose Ends BBC Radio 4
Out To Lunch (series 1) BBC Radio 2

Theatre credits include:
Sweeney Todd, The Adelphi Theatre

Writing credits include:
Little Cracker Sky1 / Left Bank Pictures
Walk on the Wild Side BBC1
Celebrity Soup E!
8 Out of 10 Cats Endemol
Angels BBC Writers Bursary Aspect Productions
Line Dance Nation for TAS Theatre Co
The Nativity Panto for TAS Theatre Co
Seven Sundays for Influential Production Co

Awards include:
Winner 2006 Chortle Best Breakthrough Act
Winner North West Comedian of the Year
Winner Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year
Nominee 2005 Perrier Award
Semi-Finalist BBC Comedy Awards
Finalist So You Think You’re Funny?
Nominee for Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Comedy
Nominee for Manchester Theatre Awards

Casting information
Height 6ft
Weight 15st
Hair Brown
Eyes Blue
Casting age 28 – 35
Native accent Manchester