John Oliver (comedian)

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For other persons named John Oliver, see John Oliver (disambiguation).
John Oliver
Nationality English
Genres Political comedy
Website mrjohnoliver.com

John Oliver (born 1977 in England) is an English comedian, correspondent and writer for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. His previous credits include The Department with Chris Addison and Andy Zaltzman, Political Animal, Fighting Talk, My Hero, and Mock the Week. Oliver attended Mark Rutherford Upper School in Bedford, England and is a graduate of Cambridge University, where he studied English and was vice-president of the Cambridge Footlights.[1] According to his biography on Comedy Central's website, his passport lists his occupation as "comedian" and a passport "never lies". Oliver is a fan of English association football club Liverpool.[2]

Oliver also wrote and presented the current BBC America campaign to have viewers use closed captioning (subtitles). Shown in brief segments before shows, "The following program contains accents you would have heard a lot more if you hadn't thrown our tea into Boston Harbor," says one. "Not even British people can follow the British accent 100 percent of the time. Therefore you, like me, might want to use closed-captioning." Oliver has begun using some of these jokes in his current stand up routine.[3] One is "On behalf of the queen, I hereby offer you closed captioning. Alright, it's not on behalf of the queen. But the offer still stands."

In 2007 Oliver was given his first motion picture role, playing Dick Pants in The Love Guru.[4]

Oliver currently hosts The Times' weekly comedy podcast The Bugle with Andy Zaltzman.[5]

He was one of the many writers on the picket lines during the Writer's Guild Strike which brought The Daily Show to a halt,[6] but appeared on the show upon its resuming production on January 7. During a sketch, he pointed out that he is in the U.S. on a visa which requires him not to strike while the show is in production and violation of the terms of the visa would be grounds for deportation.

Oliver's individual stand-up special entitled John Oliver: Terrifying Times debuted on Comedy Central on 20 April 2008.[7]

References

  1. ^ "1997-1998". Retrieved on 2007-10-20. 
  2. ^ ‘Daily Show’ Correspondent John Oliver Fears We're in the End Times (2007-04-10). Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
  3. ^ Translated from the British. TVWeek (2007-05-21). Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
  4. ^ Oliver's movie break (English). Chortle.co.uk (2007-09-05). Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
  5. ^ The Bugle - Audio Newspaper For A Visual World. timesonline.co.uk.
  6. ^ John Oliver, Writer (2007-10-15). Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
  7. ^ 'Daily Show' Correspondent John Oliver Stars in His First-Ever COMEDY CENTRAL(R) Original Stand-Up Special (2008-04-09). Retrieved on 2008-04-19.

External links

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Current correspondents and contributors to The Daily Show