The Nimmo Twins

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The Nimmo Twins are Owen Evans and Karl Minns, a sketch comedy duo from Norfolk, UK. Formed in 1996 in Norwich, they first came to national attention after their show Posh Spice Nude was a sell-out success at the 1997 Edinburgh Festival. Appearances on BBC One's Stand Up Show followed and they became regulars on Radio 4's Loose Ends programme with Ned Sherrin. They returned to Edinburgh in 1998 and 1999, selling out in critically acclaimed shows both years. They toured Britain, played Paris, New York and two sell-out years at the Singapore Comedy Festival.

Owen Evans was raised in Cromer and attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA)where he studied with the Moscow Arts Theatre school. As an actor he has appeared in innumerable plays and theatre productions. He has also appeared in television adverts for Daewoo Cars, Nat-West, Ikea and Flora.

As a stand-up comedian, Karl Minns won the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award in 2001 and played the Montreal and Melbourne Comedy Festivals before returning to Edinburgh in 2002 in Comedy Clone with Nina Conti and Patrick Monaghan. The Nimmo Twins then became the face of Adnams Beer in Norfolk in TV radio and billboard adverts for two years.

The Twins got their start with the Crude Apache Theatre Company. Karl Minns has written plays, comedies and musicals for both stage and radio. As a television writer he has written for Karen Taylor, Laura Solon and Phil Nichol. He wrote the TV sitcom pilot Moonmonkeys starring Karl Theobald and Dan Antopoloski. He also writes a weekly column for the Norwich Evening News. He was awarded the EDF Regional Columnist of The Year in January 2007.

The first Radio 4 comedy series The Nimmo Twins in... was broadcast in 2000 and, as of 2007, is still being repeated on BBC 7, a BBC digital radio station devoted to comedy and drama. Episodes included: A Stiff Upper Lip - a tale of a Victorian era gentleman without a beard; and Lord of the Onion Rings - the tale of a Tolkien-obsessed man who works in a petrol station. Their second series, The Rapid Eye Movement, about the troupe of actors performing a man's nightly dreams, starred Martin Freeman, Chris Langham and Kevin Eldon. The show ran for three series until 2005 and was a huge critical success. The second series was nominated for the Douglas Adams Award for Radio Comedy in 2003.

In their native Norfolk, they are best known for their yearly sketch show, Normal for Norfolk, which over the last ten years has grown from a pub show to break box office records at the Norwich Playhouse, playing to over 4500 people over Christmas 2005.

In the early hours of December 14, 2007, Minns was attacked walking home after a performance at the city's Playhouse. He was badly injured, suffering a broken arm and fractured skull. The duo were forced to cancel the remainder of their shows for the year, but hope to reschedule them for early 2008.^[1]