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Henry Richard Enfield (born 30 May 1961) is an English comedian. He is known in particular for his television work, including Harry Enfield's Television Programme, Harry Enfield & Chums and Harry & Paul, across which he created and portrayed comedy characters such as Kevin the Teenager, Loadsamoney, Smashie and Nicey, The Scousers, Tim Nice-But-Dim and Mr "You Don't Want to Do It Like That".
He was educated at the independent Arundale School in Pulborough, Dorset House School, Worth School, Collyer's Sixth Form College (all in West Sussex) and the University of York, where he was a member of Derwent College and studied politics. He squatting in Hackney and worked for a while as a milkman.
He captured wider public attention when appearing on Channel 4's Saturday Live (1986-1988), as several different characters created with Paul Whitehouse. These quickly entered the national consciousness. Among these characters were Stavros, a Greek kebab shop owner with fractured English; and Loadsamoney, an obnoxious plasterer who constantly boasted about how much money he earned. The Loadsamoney character was created in reaction to the policies of the Thatcher government of the day, and took on a life of its own, sampling the songs "Money, Money" from the musical Cabaret and "Money, Money, Money" by ABBA to spawn a hit single in 1988 and a sell-out live tour. (2025). 9780230240568, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230240568 In May 1988, Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock used the term loadsamoney to criticise the policies of the Conservative government and journalists began to refer to the "loadsamoney mentality" and the "loadsamoney economy". The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language. Ed. David Crystal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. p. 133.
As a foil to Loadsamoney, Enfield and Whitehouse created the Geordie "Bugger-All-Money" and in 1988 Enfield appeared as both characters during the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium. In time, Whitehouse and Enfield became disturbed that Loadsamoney was being seen in a positive light, rather than as a satirical figure, and they had him run over during a Comic Relief show while leaving the studio after presenting host Lenny Henry with "the biggest cheque of the night"—a physically huge cheque for ten pence. Enfield created "Tory Boy", a character which portrayed a young male Conservative Member of Parliament (MP).
In 1989, Enfield realised a personal project, Norbert Smith - a Life, a spoof on British theatrical knights "slumming" in the film industry. He starred as Dirk Gently in the BBC Radio adaptations of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1986-1987).
In 1991, Enfield played Dermot in the Thames Television sitcom Men Behaving Badly (1992), alongside Martin Clunes, Caroline Quentin and Leslie Ash. Enfield left after the first series, and was replaced in the second series by Neil Morrissey as Tony. Enfield is a professed fan of opera and fronted a Channel 4 documentary series on the subject. In 1991 Harry starred as Little Jim Morley in the series Gone to the Dogs (1991).
After a short break from television, Enfield signed a new contract with BSkyB, but produced only one series, Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show. In 2002 Enfield returned to the BBC as the ageing rockstar Gary Bloke in Celeb, which received poor audience ratings.
In 2002, Enfield was the first guest on the revamped version of BBC's Top Gear where he did a 1 minute 49.7 second lap. He also appeared on the show on 23 November 2008. Enfield has also narrated various TV documentaries, such as Discovery Wings' Classic British Aircraft.
In 2007, he played Jim Stonem in the Channel 4 series Skins. He reprised this role in the second series in 2008, and the third series in 2009, and directed two episodes in season two entitled "Chris" and "Tony" in 2008. He directed and starred alongside Paul Whitehouse in their own comedy series Harry & Paul (originally titled Ruddy Hell! It's Harry & Paul) in 2007. For their work on this series, they both jointly won the 2009 British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series).
In September 2013 Enfield appeared as Martin, the father of Jack Whitehall's character Alfie, in the BBC Three comedy series Bad Education. In October 2014, Enfield and Paul Whitehouse returned to the characters of Frank and George in a sketch for Channel 4's testicular cancer awareness comedy show "The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night".
In August 2015, Enfield, alongside Whitehouse, in celebration of their 25-year partnership, presented An Evening With Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.
In 2016, he appeared as John Shakespeare, father of William Shakespeare, in the sitcom Upstart Crow.
Since 2016, Enfield has appeared as Prince Charles (later King Charles III) in the Channel 4 sitcom The Windsors. For his portrayal of Charles, he was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance in 2017.
He reprised his role as Martin in The Bad Education Movie (2015). He appeared as Bill in the 2015 film Scottish Mussel.
In 2015 Enfield and Jessica Hynes appeared as Mr and Mrs Jackson in a BBC film of the Arthur Ransome children's novel Swallows and Amazons.
In 2022, Enfield appeared as Tony Blair in the made-for-television biographical musical comedy film .
He also appeared alongside Damon Albarn's other project the Good, the Bad & the Queen, as compere, during a live performance at the Tower of London, on 9 July 2007.
In January 2025, Enfield featured in Ego Death, a film of 10 interconnected music videos accompanying an album by Archie Henderson's musical persona, Jazz Emu.
| 1995 | Writers' Guild of Great Britain | TV - Light Entertainment (shared) | Harry Enfield and Chums | ||
| 1997 | |||||
| National Television Awards | Most Popular Comedy Performer | ||||
| 1998 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Entertainment Performance | |||
| 2008 | Loaded Lafta Awards | Loaded Legend | |||
| Banff Television Festival Awards | Rockie Award - Best Comedy Program (shared) | Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul | |||
| 2009 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Comedy Programme (shared) | |||
| British Comedy Award | Best Sketch Show | ||||
| 2010 | |||||
| 2011 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Comedy Programme (shared) | |||
| 2015 | Best Scripted Comedy | Harry & Paul's Story of the 2s | |||
| Royal Television Society Programme Awards | Comedy Performance | ||||
| Writer - Comedy (shared) | |||||
| 2017 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Male Comedy Performance | The Windsors | ||
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