Beyond the Microphone: British Comedians Who Became Directors and Presenters

Stephen Merchant co-created The Office and went on to write and direct for the cinema. Simon Amstell writes and directs for the BBC. Sandi Toksvig hosts quizzes, writes books and helped found a political party. Matt Lucas has moved between Doctor Who, musical theatre and the Bake Off tent.

These are five British comedians with interesting careers outside stand-up, each following a different route, and each career is well documented. Here is how they compare.

Richard Ayoade: the director

Ayoade was president of the Footlights at Cambridge. In 2000 he co-wrote Garth Marenghi’s Fright Knight with Matthew Holness, and its sequel won the Perrier Comedy Award a year later. He went on to direct, co-write and star in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, and won a BAFTA for playing Moss in The IT Crowd.

Then came music videos for Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. His first feature, Submarine (2010), adapted Joe Dunthorne’s 2008 novel, premiered at Toronto and won Best Screenplay at the British Independent Film Awards. The Double (2013) drew on a Dostoevsky novella.

Stephen Merchant: from radio assistant to film director

Merchant began in radio. He became Ricky Gervais’s assistant at XFM, then joined a BBC training scheme, and a short film he made there with Gervais led eventually to The Office. He co-wrote and co-directed The Office (2001 to 2003) and co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in Extras and Life’s Too Short.

His own stand-up became an HBO series, Hello Ladies. He co-directed Cemetery Junction with Gervais in 2010 and wrote and directed Fighting with My Family (2019), the true story of a Norwich wrestling family, after Dwayne Johnson suggested it. BBC Radio 4 lists two Golden Globes, three BAFTAs, a Primetime Emmy and four British Comedy Awards.

Simon Amstell: the presenter who became a filmmaker

Amstell has said he did his first stand-up gig at 13. At 18 he lost a Nickelodeon presenting job for being mean and sarcastic to children, by his own account, and at 21 he was interviewing pop stars on Popworld. He hosted Never Mind the Buzzcocks from 2006 and said in April 2009 that he would not return, citing live tours and other work.

The pivot was Grandma’s House, a BBC Two series he wrote with Dan Swimer, in which he played a version of himself. He then wrote and directed Carnage (2017), a BBC mockumentary set in a vegan Britain of 2067, and Benjamin, which premiered at the London Film Festival and opened in UK cinemas on 15 March 2019. His management lists an RTS Award, two British Comedy Awards and a BAFTA nomination; these are self-reported and worth checking.

Sandi Toksvig: the host and campaigner

Toksvig performed in the Footlights’ first all-woman show and later joined the Comedy Store Players. She received an OBE in 2014, left The News Quiz in 2015 to co-found the Women’s Equality Party, took over QI in 2016 and co-presented The Great British Bake Off from 2017. Her publisher says she has written more than twenty books and became president of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain in 2019.

Matt Lucas: the all-rounder

Lucas came to notice as George Dawes on Shooting Stars, then co-created Little Britain and Come Fly With Me with David Walliams. In 2017 he joined Doctor Who as Nardole opposite Peter Capaldi, and he appeared in Les Misérables at the O2 in 2010 and in the West End the year after.

In 2020 he replaced Toksvig as Bake Off co-host alongside Noel Fielding, Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood, and left after three series, citing his schedule. His earlier work has drawn criticism: he and Walliams have apologised for some Little Britain and Come Fly With Me sketches.

Five routes, one system

What these careers share is the infrastructure behind them. University societies like the Footlights launched Ayoade and Toksvig, radio and a BBC training scheme launched Merchant, the Edinburgh Fringe gave Amstell a stage (he played it in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009, according to one profile), and the BBC and Channel 4 commissioned most of the work above. Ayoade, Merchant and Amstell made their own material, while Toksvig and Lucas brought comic skill to formats others had built.

Taken together, they show that the stand-up stage is one route among several. Ayoade and Merchant are clear cases of comedians who became film directors, Amstell of a presenter who found his voice as a writer-director, Toksvig of a broadcaster who added books and politics, and Lucas of a sketch performer who became an actor and host.

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