Andrew Lawrence (I)
- 45 years old
- English
- Actor, writer and stand-up comedian
Andrew Lawrence is an award-winning British stand-up comedian known for lengthy rantings and ravings about the state of contemporary society. He has written the BBC Radio 4 sitcoms What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else and There Is No Escape. His career changed overnight after a Facebook post in 2014 in which he criticised a supposed liberal, progressive, anti-white-male agenda in comedy, and in 2016 he was the subject of a Sky Arts documentary The Outcast Comic.
Non-comedy TV and film credits may be found here:
Andrew Lawrence on IMDb
- Born
- Monday 17th December 1979 (45 years-old)
- Nationality
- English
Andrew Lawrence is a stand-up comedian known for characteristically lengthy, fired-up, pessimistic rantings and ravings about the state of contemporary society.
In 2003 he placed second in the So You Think You're Funny competition, which was closely followed in 2004 by the BBC New Comedy Award, the Amused Moose Starsearch, and York Comedy Festival New Act of the Year, and in 2006 by the Edinburgh Comedy Award (Best Newcomer Nominee).
In 2006 he was also cast as regular ensemble actor Marco in Ideal for BBC Three, a sitcom starring Johnny Vegas as a small-time drug dealer.
More awards and commendations came flooding in, with Lawrence nominated for the main Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2007 and for the 2010 Chortle Award for Best UK Headline Act.
As his star was fast rising, in 2010 Lawrence appeared on BBC One's Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow and recorded a 4-part comedy series for BBC Radio 4 entitled What To Do If You're Not Like Everybody Else, which he wrote. This featured short comedic monologues performed by him, and eventually ran for two series between 2010 and 2011.
In 2011 he was nominated for a Chortle Award for Best UK Headline Act, and also appeared on Live At The Apollo.
In 2012 he became a series regular on 10 episodes of Channel 4's topical stand-up comedy series Stand Up For The Week, and also wrote and recorded a new series on BBC Radio 4, called How Did We End Up Like This?. Starring Lawrence, Sara Pascoe, and Mark Larwood, it explores the catastrophes and triumphs of human progress using an energetic mixture of sketches, song, and stand-up. In 2015 he released another BBC Radio 4 sitcom called There Is No Escape, starring Diane Morgan, about a man dissatisfied with his lot in life and meekly attempting to improve his conditions.
On 25 October 2014, Lawrence drew national, controversial attention through a lengthy post on his official Facebook page in which he excoriated an increasing number of 'political' comedians cracking easy, unimaginative jokes about UKIP, 'to the extent that it's got hack, boring and lazy very quickly', deeming said comedians 'out of touch, smug, superannuated, overpaid TV comics with their cosy lives in their west-London ivory towers taking a supercilious, moralising tone, pandering to the ever-creeping militant political correctness of the BBC". He reserved particular disdain for long-running topical BBC topical panel-show Mock The Week, which he deemed an example of 'liberal back-slapping', consisting of 'aging, balding, fat men, ethnic comedians and women-posing-as-comedians, sit congratulating themselves on how enlightened they are about the fact that UKIP are ridiculous and pathetic'.
His post garnered huge interest across the British media, leading to high-profile disputes with fellow comedians (and Mock The Week panellists and hosts Dara O Briain and Frankie Boyle).
In 2016 Sky Arts even released a documentary entitled The Outcast Comic, charting how Lawrence was ostracised from the comedy community almost overnight for daring to criticise a quota system which, In his own words, favoured 'ethnic comedians and women posing as comedians' at the expense of the straight white male. In this show, Reginald D Hunter described Lawrence's stand-up as 'tortured', coming from a place of real cynicism - and this was before any of his social views became known.
In recent years Lawrence has traded in this subversive, rebellious , anti-PC image, successfully touring with titles such as Andrew Lawrence: Uncensored, Andrew Lawrence: The Hate Speech Tour, Andrew Lawrence: Clean and Andrew Lawrence: The Pale, Male & Stale Tour.
In 2015 he released his first book, a parody of the self-help fad in publishing. It is called Reasons To Kill Yourself.
- Ham Fist Prize 2016
- Most Politically Correct Review Prize (Nominee)
- Chortle Awards 2011
- Best Headliner (Nominee)
- Dave Funniest Joke Of The Fringe Award 2011
- Main Award (Nominee)
- Chortle Awards 2010
- Best Headliner (Nominee)
- Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2007
- Best Comedy Show (Nominee)
- Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2006
- Best Newcomer (Nominee)
- BBC New Comedy Award 2004
- Main Prize (Winner)
- So You Think You're Funny? 2003
- Main Prize (Runner-up)
