Jack Whitehall

Early life and education

Whitehall was born on 7 July 1988 (having been conceived the night of the Great Storm) at the Portland Hospital in the City of Westminster in central London. He is the first child of actress Hilary Amanda Jane Whitehall (née Isbister, stage name Hilary Gish) and the television producer Michael John Whitehall. His father was an agent for Judi Dench, Colin Firth, and Richard Griffiths, and wrote the memoir Shark-Infested Waters. Whitehall has a sister, Molly Louisa (born 1989), and a brother, Barnaby William (born 1992). He had two godfathers—Nigel Havers and the late Richard Griffiths, both actors.

He attended Tower House School in East Sheen, west London, where he was a fellow pupil with Twilight Saga star Robert Pattinson. He has made jokes about this, often mentioning that he resented Pattinson's taking all the best acting roles in the school plays. Whitehall has also mentioned in an interview how he auditioned for the role of Harry Potter after the casting team visited his school. He went on to attend the Dragon School in Oxford and then Marlborough College, a public school in Wiltshire.

Whitehall took a gap year where he decided to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. He attended the University of Manchester for two terms only, to study History of Art.

He has stated that his comedy hero is Jack Dee, having briefly met him as a teenager.

Television and radio career

In 1997 Whitehall (then aged nine) appeared in the series Noah's Ark. In June 2008, Whitehall presented the first week of Big Brother's Big Mouth on E4, returning in August to host the twelfth week. In September and November, Whitehall made his first and second of many appearances on Channel 4's 8 Out of 10 Cats.

In January 2009, he hosted Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth, during which he appeared on The Sunday Night Project, followed on 5 June by his third appearance on 8 Out of 10 Cats. In June 2009 Whitehall co-hosted the satirical TNT Show with Holly Walsh on Channel 4. In August, he appeared on Charlie Brooker's Channel 4 panel show You Have Been Watching, followed in September by his first appearance on Would I Lie to You?. He made his first of many appearances on BBC Two satirical panel show Mock the Week, and in October, he guest-presented an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

In January 2010, Whitehall made his fourth appearance in 8 Out of 10 Cats, followed in February by his second appearance on Mock the Week, and a first appearance in Argumental on Dave. In April, he featured on Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, which had been filmed live at The O2 Arena in London in March. In April, he appeared on James Corden's sport show A League of Their Own, and on 11 June made his fifth appearance on 8 Out of 10 Cats, followed in June by his third appearance on Mock the Week. In June and July 2010, Whitehall was a regular performer on the first series of Channel 4's Stand Up for the Week alongside Andi Osho, Kevin Bridges, Rich Hall and host Patrick Kielty. In September he made his sixth appearance on 8 Out of 10 Cats, and in September and October, his fourth and fifth appearances on Mock the Week. In October, he appeared on a second episode of Argumental, and he honoured Big Brother host Davina McCall on the Channel 4 show A Comedy Roast. In October, he headlined the second episode of Dave's One Night Stand, followed by his second appearance on A League of Their Own, and on 1 November he appeared on Ask Rhod Gilbert. In December, he appeared on the Royal Variety Performance 2010, and in December he appeared on the sixth series of Live at the Apollo, which had been filmed on 27 September.

In February 2011, Whitehall was featured on Comedy Central Presents Jack Whitehall in the United States. In March, he appeared on the BBC football programme Final Score, reporting on Arsenal's 0–0 draw with Sunderland at the Emirates Stadium. From March until May, Whitehall returned as a regular performer for the second series of Channel 4's Stand Up for the Week together with Andi Osho, Kevin Bridges and Rich Hall, joined for the new series by Jon Richardson. In March, Whitehall and Bridges presented Jack and Kevin's Comic Relief Lock-In, which took the Comic Relief show through to the early hours of the morning with a selection of the best comedy clips of the last couple of years. In May 2011, he made his début appearance on a U.S. chatshow, interviewed by Ellen DeGeneres, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In June, Whitehall featured on the second annual Channel 4's Comedy Gala, which had been filmed in May. In June, he made a seventh appearance on 8 Out of 10 Cats.

In July 2011, Whitehall appeared alongside Lorraine Kelly on the Channel 4 show King Of..., presented by Claudia Winkleman. In July 2011, he made a sixth appearance on Mock the Week, and he appeared on the British version of The Marriage Ref with Jack Dee and Katherine Kelly. He was a guest on the Channel 4 show Chris Moyles' Quiz Night, presented by BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, and in September made his second appearance on Would I Lie to You?. Whitehall made his acting début in the Channel 4 comedy drama Fresh Meat, from the creators of Peep Show. In the series, Whitehall plays the role of J.P., a public school boy who failed to get into a "proper" university. The first series, in which he co-stars alongside Joe Thomas, ran until November 2011 and received critical acclaim. A second, third and fourth series aired on Channel 4 in the UK. In September, he and his father Michael appeared on The Million Pound Drop Live, hosted by Davina McCall. On 30 November it was announced he would write and star in new BBC Three comedy Bad Education.

He landed a six-part entertainment series on Channel 4, called Hit The Road Jack, which started airing on 20 March 2012, following Whitehall on a comedy tour of the country. He became a regular panelist for the fifth series of A League of Their Own on Sky1 in 2012.

In 2012, Whitehall starred in a self-penned comedy drama series Bad Education on BBC Three, which began on 14 August, in which he plays Alfie, a teacher who is "the worst teacher ever to grace the British education system and is a bigger kid than the kids he teaches". The series also stars Mathew Horne as Fraser, the headmaster, Sarah Solemani as Miss Gulliver, the biology teacher, and Michelle Gomez as Miss Pickwell, the deputy head. In 2015, Whitehall starred in a feature-film version of Bad Education, about a school trip to Cornwall. The film was provisionally entitled The Bad Education Movie.

On 30 November 2012, Whitehall was guest chairman of Have I Got News for You (season 44, broadcast 7). On 3 January 2013, he promoted his first DVD in an interview with Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4's Front Row. On 24 November 2013 he acted in the Old Vic's charity gala '24 Hour Plays', where a series of ten-minute plays are written, rehearsed and performed within 24 hours.Also in 2013, Whitehall lent his voice to the Disney animated film Frozen for the UK version of the film. His character, a troll priest named Gothi, had two lines. However, the version with his voice was not used for the DVD release and Whitehall was cut from the film.

In February 2014, Whitehall guest starred on Top Gear, having only driven a car once before, and drove on the Top Gear Test Track. In December 2014, he made a guest appearance in the second series of the Peter Gabriel spoof The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, broadcast on BBC Two. In 2015, he starred as posh backpacker Hugo in "La Couchette", the first episode of the second series of anthology series Inside No. 9.

On 24 October 2014, Whitehall was the host of the Feeling Nuts Movement's inaugural event called The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night on Channel 4, raising awareness of testicular cancer.

In 2017, it was announced that Whitehall would present Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father, travel documentary/road trip series, with his father Michael Whitehall on Netflix.

Stand-up comedy

Whitehall started stand up comedy performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Pleasance Theatre's Comedy Reserve showcase. He had previously taken a sketch show to the Fringe called Comic Abuse. Whitehall won the Amused Moose Laugh Off 2007, and was runner-up in the Laughing Horse New Act of The Year competition, a finalist in So You Think You're Funny?, and winner of the Charlie Harthill Special Reserve in the same year. He was also nominated for 'Best Newcomer' in the 2008 Chortle Awards, and was a finalist in the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year.

In August 2009, Whitehall performed his first solo stand-up show, Nearly Rebellious, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The same year, he was nominated for 'Best Newcomer' at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

On 30 March 2010, Whitehall took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at The O2 Arena in London and broadcast on 5 April. Whitehall then appeared at the Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival in July, and returned to the Edinburgh Fringe in August with his second solo show, entitled Learning Difficulties. On 27 September, Whitehall appeared at the Apollo, Hammersmith in front of a full audience for a recording of the sixth series of Live at the Apollo, which aired on 17 December. Also in 2010, he was picked out by Variety as one of their prestigious ten stars of the future.

In January 2011, Whitehall was nominated by the British Comedy Awards for 'Best Comedy Breakthrough'. On 12 March, he set a new Guinness World Records title together with Dara Ó Briain and Jon Richardson, for hosting the 'Highest stand up comedy gig in the world', on a British Airways flight in support of Comic Relief. On 24 May, Whitehall took part in the second annual Channel 4's Comedy Gala, which aired on 10 June.

In August 2011, Whitehall performed two shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His third solo stand-up show in succession, Let's Not Speak of This Again. He also performed a series of four stand-up shows with his father Michael Whitehall, called Backchat, which was also completely sold out. Both received very favourable reviews.

He appeared in the first series of Dave's One Night Stand for the comedy network Dave. Recording a stand up performance at London's Haymarket Theatre. The show featured special guests as support.

In November 2011, Whitehall performed two sell out solo shows at the Hammersmith Apollo. These shows completed his debut national tour 'Let's Not Speak of This Again', Both shows again received highly favourable reviews.

Controversies

In September 2009, Whitehall was accused of stealing one of Stewart Lee's stand-up routines for his critically acclaimed Nearly Rebellious show. Lee had performed the joke, which deals with the subject of life after walking in space, at the Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival in the 1990s, and was filmed for TV by the Comedy Network. When Whitehall recited his version of the routine at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009, he was described by an otherwise favourable review for Metro as "repeating" Lee's sketch "almost verbatim".

On the 20th of October 2009, Robbie Williams was accused of stealing one of Whitehall's jokes in his much-publicised "comeback" performance as part of the BBC's electric proms at the Camden Roundhouse. When Whitehall originally performed the one-liner, which plays on the phrase "to look down on someone", it was voted the fifth best joke of the year's Edinburgh Fringe in a poll conducted by TV channel Dave.

On 20 June 2010, a photograph of Whitehall appeared in the News of the World, purportedly showing him in possession of cocaine in Manchester. He quickly issued an apology for his behaviour, but did not confirm or deny the allegations. Later that same week, Whitehall appeared on the debut episode of Stand Up for the Week alongside fellow comedian Patrick Kielty, who took the opportunity to mockingly refer to the article.

On 30 December 2012, Whitehall appeared on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, during which he made a joke about Queen Elizabeth II. On the next day, complaints were submitted about the joke to Ofcom. Ensuing media speculation led to the National Television Awards stating publicly that Whitehall would not be forced to resign from presenting the awards a short time later.

Awards

DVD releases