Rhod Gilbert (born in Carmarthen, Wales, 18 October 1968) is a Welsh comedian who was nominated in 2005 for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award. In 2008, he was nominated for the main if.comedy (as the Edinburgh Comedy Awards were then branded).
He appears on television and radio panel shows, and has performed stand-up on the Royal Variety Performance. His first DVD will be released in November 2009. He hosts a weekly show on BBC Radio Wales.
Early life
Rhodri Gilbert was born in Carmarthen, Wales in 1968 and studied languages at Exeter University. Gilbert got into comedy after taking a comedy course. Before becoming a stand-up comedian, he worked as a qualitative researcher for a number of different market research agencies in London.
Stand-up comedy
Starting his stand-up comedy career in 2002, by the following year Gilbert had already won several different talent competitions. and was nominated for the Perrier Newcomer award for his first solo show in 2005 at Edinburgh entitled 1984, where he described the worst year of his life growing up in the village of Llanbobl.
In his 2006 Edinburgh Fringe show Knocking on Heaven’s Door, Gilbert told stories from his life, weighing up whether he would be admitted to heaven. His 2007 show, Who’s Eaten Gilbert’s Grape? saw Gilbert return to Llanbobl and pick up the story following the 1984 show narrative. His 2008 show, Rhod Gilbert and the Award-Winning Mince Pie, saw Gilbert question his sanity, his career and his life after suffering a mental breakdown brought on by the award-winning mince pie at a motorway services.
Many of Gilbert’s stories are told around his fictional childhood in the village of Llanbobl – he was actually born and bred in Carmarthen. He has performed worldwide but was the first comedian ever to perform in Taiwan.
In November 2008, Gilbert appeared on the BBC’s Live at the Apollo and on 17 December 2008 he appeared at the 80th Royal Variety Performance.
Gilbert’s 2009/10 show, entitled Rhod Gilbert and the cat that looked like Nicholas Lyndhurst, was announced on 5 April. The show will be previewed around the country in small venues before being performed at the Edinburgh Festival. The show will tour UK theatres from September 2009.
A DVD of the 2008 show Rhod Gilbert and the Award-Winning Mince Pie has been announced and is set for release on 16 November 2009. The DVD was recorded in the London Bloomsbury Theatre on 18 & 19 June 2009. The DVD recording will be the last performance of the ‘Mince Pie’ show before Gilbert moves on to his new show.
[edit] Television
Gilbert has appeared several times on the BBC2 shows Mock The Week, and Never Mind the Buzzcocks as well as Channel 4’s 8 Out of Ten Cats, and has also used his comedy talents to write and narrate BBC Three’s 2007 Goals Galore, Pranks Galore, Football Gaffes Galore and TV Gaffes Galore programmes. He has also presented BBC 2W’s, Rhod Gilbert’s Teen Tribes, providing an insight into the teen tribal worlds of “Emos”, “Chavs” and “Goths”.
Gilbert was Paramount Comedy’s continuity writer and announcer between September 2005 and April 2006, providing end-credit voice-overs for their peaktime programme schedule.
In December 2008 Gilbert was signed for an advertising campaign to further promote tourism in Wales and is now the official Voice Of Wales for the country’s tourist-board. He also fronts the 2009 Visit Wales television advertising.[7]
On 6 June 2009 Gilbert appeared as the headline act on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow on BBC One, and he guested on 8 out of 10 Cats on 17 July 2009. He also provided voiceover material for the sketch show Walk on the Wild Side.
[edit] Radio
Gilbert fronts his own radio show “The Rhod Gilbert Radio Show”, broadcast by BBC Radio Wales on Saturdays between 11am and 1pm, alongside fellow Welsh stand-up comedian Chris Corcoran and they also share a house.
In 2006, he hosted the BBC Radio Wales comedy panel show Jest a Minute, live from The Comedy Store in London.
The second series of Jest a Minute was filmed in late 2008 in Cardiff’s Glee Club, hosted by Gilbert and featuring regular team captains Chris Corcoran and Lloyd Langford, and guests from the comedy circuit such as Professor Greg Davies, Lucy Porter and Jon Richardson.
Gilbert was also the host of BBC Radio 4’s 4 Stands Up comedy series which aired in the Autumn of 2008, and has also appeared twice on Radio Four’s Just a Minute, Radio 2’s Does the Team Think?, and BBC Radio 4s Act your Age.
In December 2008, a pilot of his sitcom, Rhod Gilbert’s Leaving Llanbobl was broadcast on BBC Radio Two; the sitcom was written and starred Rhod Gilbert and Greg Davies, with additional writing by Sian Harries. Lloyd Langford played Gilbert’s amiable younger brother Emrys, Di Botcher played Brenda, a gossipy hairdresser, and Mike Hayward played Gilbert’s father Gurnos. The show was produced by Ed Morrish.
Awards
2002
- Finalist in So You Think You’re Funny
2003
- Winner of the Leicester Mercury comedian of the year as part of the Leicester Comedy Festival
- Winner of the Paramount Gift Of The Gag competition
- Chortle Award nominee for best new act
- Winner of the BBC New Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
- Runner-up in the Hackney Empire New Act of The Year competition
- Winner of the Metro and Jongleurs Spike Award for New Talent, South East
- Winner of the National Talent Hunt at the York Festival
2005
- Chortle award for Best Breakthrough Act
- Nominated for The List and Writers Guild Comedy Award for “Rhod Gilbert’s 1984”
- Perrier nominated for Best Newcomer for “Rhod Gilbert’s 1984.”
2006
- Placed in The Times Top 50 comedians
- Named one of The Rough Guide to British Cult Comedy’s top 50 icons
2008
- Nominated for the main IF.COM Eddies (formerly Perrier award) at the Edinburgh fringe for “Rhod Gilbert and the Award-winning Mince Pie”
- Winner of the Time Out ‘Comic of the Year’
- Winner of the Time Out ‘Best Show of the Year’ for “Rhod Gilbert and the Award-winning Mince Pie”
- Winner of the Time Out ‘Breakthrough Act’
- Nominated for the Celtic Media awards ‘Best Radio Personality’ for the “Rhod Gilbert Radio Show” on BBC Radio Wales
2009
- Nominated for the Times/South Bank Show Awards, ‘Breakthrough Act’
- Winner of Chortle award for ‘Best Headliner’
- Winner of “Comics Comic” Chortle award
- Nominated for the Chortle award for Best Show for “Rhod Gilbert and the Award-winning Mince Pie”
