British Comedy Guide
Adam Riches
Adam Riches

Adam Riches

  • 51 years old
  • British
  • Actor and stand-up comedian
Adam Riches. Copyright: Idil Sukan

Adam Riches is a British comedian and 2011 winner of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award. Known for his immensely interactive, full-throttle shows that involves audiences playing Swingball and using skateboards, he often impersonates characters such as Sean Bean and Ryan Gosling, and has transferred these comic creations to television shows such as 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown. A seasoned Edinburgh Fringe performer, he also starred in BBC Radio 4's sitcom The Cold Swedish Winter, in which he played a struggling stand-up comedian from London forced to adapt to life in an unpronounceable, harsh, and bitterly cold village in Sweden.

Year Production Role
2024 Adam Riches: Jimmy Jimmy Connors
2024 Machynlleth Comedy Festival Self
2024 Late Night Lycett - Series 2
  1. E1 - Episode One
  2. E2 - Episode Two
Andrew Neil of Fortune
2023 Dungeons 'n' Bastards: An Adam Riches Gameshow Self
2023 Adam Riches is The Guys Who... Self
2023 A Pinch of VAULT Self
2023 Stevie Martin: screen time Ensemble Actor
2023 Vault Festival Self
2022 Flex Kitchen
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Microwave (Voice)
2020 The Cold Swedish Winter - Series 5
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Geoff
2020 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown - Series 19 (Channel 4: Series 20)
  1. E2 - Episode Two
Sean Bean
2019 The Reluctant Landlord - Series 2
  1. E6 - Die Another Day
New Age Bloke
2019 Party's Over - Pilot Jack Steele
2019 Party's Over - Pilot Tony
2019 Adam Riches: The Beakington Town Hall Murders Self
2019 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown - Series 17 (Channel 4: Series 18)
  1. E7 - Episode Seven
Sean Bean
2019 Marlowe Comedy Weekender Self
2019 The Tringe Self
2019 Adam Riches: The Adam Riches Experience Self
2019 Making hot online content for no money Self
2018 The Cold Swedish Winter - Series 4 Geoff
2018 Max and Ivan's Prom Night Self
2018 Adam Riches Is Coach Coach 2: Coach Harder Self
2018 Adam Riches Is The Lone Dueller Self
2018 Adam Riches Is The Guy Who... Self
2017 The Last Leg - Series 12
  1. E2 - Episode Two
F
2017 The Inane Chicanery of a Certain Adam GC Riches Self
2017 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown - Series 12 (Channel 4: Series 13)
  1. E4 - Episode Four
Sean Bean
2017 Hospital People - Series 1
  1. E5 - The New Ward
  2. E6 - The Charity Single
Gary
2016 Limbo Keith
2016 Dave TALKS
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Writer
2016 Dave TALKS
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Rex Monolith
2016 The Cold Swedish Winter - Series 2
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Geoff
2015 Top Coppers
  1. E4 - The Twist Of The French Nicker
Flanagan
2015 Marriage Self
2015 Adam Riches is Coach Coach Self
2015 Horrible Histories - Series 6
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Various
2015 Drunk History - Series 1
  1. E7 - Episode Seven
James Watson
2015 Drunk History - Series 1
  1. E6 - Episode Six
Talbot Edwards
2015 Horrible Histories - Crooked King John And The Magna Carta Various
2014 Detectorists - Series 1
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Tony
2014 The Guns Of Adam Riches - Series 2
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Writer
2014 The Guns Of Adam Riches - Series 2
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Host / Presenter
2014 The Cold Swedish Winter - Series 1
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  1. E1 - Winter
  2. E2 - Spring
  3. E3 - Summer
  4. E4 - Autumn
Geoff
2014 Adam of the Riches Self
2014 Cardinal Burns - Series 2
  1. E2 - Episode Two
Ensemble Actor
2013 Crackanory - Series 1
  1. E6 - Head In The Clouds & The Newsreader
Atrocious Man
2013 Common Ground
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  1. E7 - Colin
Alfie
2013 The Guns Of Adam Riches - Series 1
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Writer
2013 The Guns Of Adam Riches - Series 1
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Host / Presenter
2012 The Comedy Marathon Spectacular Guest
2011 Three@TheFringe Self
2011 Bring Me the Head of Adam Riches Self
2010 Adam Riches Rides! Self
2009 MacAulay And Co - Edinburgh 2009
  1. E9 - Thursday 20th
Guest
2008 Play And Record - Series 2
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Writer
2008 Play And Record - Series 2
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Various

Non-comedy TV and film credits may be found here:
Adam Riches on IMDb

Born
Thursday 29th March 1973 (51 years-old)
Nationality
British
Wife
Stevie Martin (2022 - )

Adam Riches is a British comedian born in Cambridge and raised in Glasgow and London. After working briefly at Disneyland Paris, he studied media and performance at Salford University and took his first show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2003. This first full show, entitled Plat Du Nuit featured Riches and Jim Johnson playing a lounge music act, attempting an unlikely comeback. In Victor (2007), Riches played Victor Legit, a surveillance officer tasked with the job of stamping out the violation of copyright.

During one show in 2008 named Alpha Males, which saw the return of popular character Victor, Riches slipped on some yoghurt and broke his leg, only to return five days later to give a full performance, this time in a wheelchair.

Another highlight includes his 2011 show Bring Me The Head Of Adam Riches, which won him the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award and later transferred to the Soho Theatre in London. In the 2012 Chortle Awards he was nominated for Breakthrough act, character and sketch, and best show. Such triumphs led to a BBC Radio 4 show entitled The Guns Of Adam Riches, which ran for two series and featured the characters he had made famous onstage at various Edinburgh shows.

His live, loose acts frequently involve heavy audience participation, such as inviting the assembled viewers to jump on skateboards and even play Swingball.

In 2014 he played the role of Tony, the boyfriend of Lance's ex-wife Maggie, in the BBC television comedy Detectorists, created and written by Mackenzie Crook.

His 2018 show gave birth to the character of a faux-woke pick-up artist known only as The Guy Who You met After Coming Out of a Long-Term Relationship. Riches has even written columns, such as for The Guardian, in the guise of this comic creation.

He has built up quite the cult following with his many appearances in Dictionary Corner on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, in which he plays an exaggerated version of the popular actor Sean Bena. Main host Jimmy Carr introduced him as "Sean" during each episode, playing up to the act.

One tour in 2019 saw him impersonate an inspired, exaggerated triptych of Hollywood heartthrobs: Sean Bean, Gerard Butler, and Ryan Gosling.

From 2014 to 2018 he starred in The Cold Swedish Winter, a BBC Radio 4 sitcom about a London expat and stand-up comedian struggling to adapt to life in a cold and unpronounceable village in Sweden: Yxsjö.

A character comedian best known for his off-the-wall, unpredictable, so-stupid-it's-funny brand of humour, no two shows are a like in the world of Adam Riches. He has been nominated for The Times South Bank Show Breakthrough award, three Chortle Awards to date and also named Time Out Comedy's Person of the Year.

Chortle Awards 2018
Best Character, Improv or Sketch Act (Nominee)
Chortle Awards 2012
Breakthrough Act (Nominee)
Best Sketch or Character Act (Nominee)
Best Full-Length Solo Show (Nominee)
Chortle Awards 2011
Best Sketch or Character Act (Nominee)
Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2011
Best Comedy Show (Winner)
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