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James William Acaster (; born 9 January 1985) is an English comedian, presenter, podcaster and actor. As well as the stand-up specials and Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999, he is known for co-hosting the food podcast Off Menu and the panel show Hypothetical. Acaster makes use of fictional characters within his stand-up comedy, which is characterised by frequent , offbeat observational comedy and overarching stories. He has won five Chortle Awards, a Just for Laughs Award and International Comedy Festival Awards at Melbourne and New Zealand.
After playing the drums for local bands in Kettering, Acaster began pursuing stand-up comedy as a career in 2008. He was a support act for Josie Long in 2010. Acaster drew acclaim for his shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he was nominated for Best Comedy Show a record-breaking five times. In 2017, he toured three of his Fringe performances as The Trelogy while writing a fourth to accompany the set; this led to the four-part Netflix special Repertoire (2018). His following tour Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 (2019) won a Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award. He began touring Hecklers Welcome in 2022, and it was released as a special on HBO Max in 2024.
Acaster appeared as a contestant on British television panel show Taskmaster (2018) and co-hosted Hypothetical (2019–2022) with Josh Widdicombe. He also hosts the food podcast Off Menu (2018–present) with the comedian Ed Gamble. Acaster's first book, Classic Scrapes (2017), was developed from a recurring segment on Widdicombe's XFM radio show in which he shared anecdotes of personal mishaps. His second book, Perfect Sound Whatever (2019), is about his mental health issues in 2017 that led to him collecting a large number of albums released in 2016. His third book, Guide to Quitting Social Media (2022), is a parody of the self-help books. All three books have been Sunday Times bestsellers. The music collective Temps was formed by Acaster and released its debut album, Party Gator Purgatory, in May 2023. He also appears in as the character Lars Pinfield.
Between the ages of 17 and 22, Acaster played the drums in various bands around his hometown, including The Wow! Scenario, Three Line Whip and Pindrop. While a drummer, Acaster had a number of jobs, including working in Wicksteed Park. He was a dishwasher in two kitchens but did not learn to cook in either role; the first kitchen had a culture of bullying but he was also able to make friends.
A car crash at the age of 18 led him to fixate on the idea of death, so Acaster created a bucket list: items included skydiving and stand-up comedy. He would complete them while working 12 hours per week in a kitchen. After completing a stand-up course at the Kettering Volunteer Bureau, he began performing every few months, but maintained the vision of becoming a professional musician.
For the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Acaster performed with Nick Helm and Josh Widdicombe in a free fringe show, garnering poor attendance and a single review— ThreeWeeks rated it one star and called it "depressing". For Josie Long's 2010 tour, the support acts were Acaster and The Pictish Trail. Most of the Welsh leg of the tour was cancelled following a car accident with Acaster at the wheel, which served as the inspiration for The Pictish Trail's single "Dead Connection" (2016). In 2011, Acaster toured as Milton Jones' support act.
In 2011, he performed his first solo show, Amongst Other Things, at the Pleasance Courtyard. It included material on cheese graters, shopping trolleys, watching The West Wing, a surprise party and skydiving. It received four stars out of five from the British Comedy Guide; Matt Wood praised the "more abstract and ambitious routines" but was more critical of the structure, audience participation and slice of life material. Beth Kahn, in Broadway Baby, gave it three stars, praising the responses to hecklers and physical comedy but critiquing his listless manner and mundane topics. Brian Logan made similar observations in a two-star review for The Guardian.
Acaster's 2012 Edinburgh show was called Prompt. Subjects included comparisons of bread, a Kettering Town F.C. chant, outwitting telemarketers and cows' weather predictions. In a four star review, Chortles Steve Bennett wrote that Acaster combined observational comedy with eccentricity in a well-structured performance. Giving it three stars, Veronica Lee of The Arts Desk praised the show as well-structured and whimsical, with frequent use of callback, but said that some tropes "feel simply mechanical".
Acaster wrote about one routine for The Guardian: a real-life story about a man cheating on his partner and saying, "you wouldn't bring an apple to an orchard, would you?" He wanted to oppose the glorification of affairs in stand-up comedy. He focused first on the phrase, as his style was to "get caught up in the little details", and then incorporated outrage, despite most of his material being understated. The Independents Julian Hall found that the routine had a style similar to Stewart Lee or Richard Herring, but was one of the "least promising" in the set.
Acaster returned to Edinburgh in 2013 with the show Lawnmower. He wore Marks & Spencers clothing resembling a school uniform. With fictionalised biographic material, he commented on Yoko Ono's impact on The Beatles, Percy Pig sweets, mariachi music and the placeholder names Joe Bloggs and John Doe. A four-star Time Out review praised the careful structuring, wording and delivery. Mark Monahan, reviewing for The Daily Telegraph, also gave four stars for a "new vitality and unpredictability" that improved on Prompt. A critic for The Herald had a lukewarm response to Acaster's "deadpan delivery and awkward physical comedy" in a three-star review. The Guardians James Kettle reviewed him as a "quiet, unassuming" comedian "adept at mixing inspired whimsy with straighter observational material".
While in Edinburgh, Acaster participated in The Wrestling, where a professional wrestler faces a comedian. One stunt involves a metal tray appearing to slam into the comedian's face. In two different years, Acaster forgot to raise his hands to block, so the tray genuinely hit him in the face. Acaster appeared again in The Wrestling at the inaugural 2023 Just for Laughs festival in London, a sister event to the Canadian festival.
The first three shows toured separately, with Acaster writing throughout each year and performing weekly. The overarching narrative was often the first part to be written. Resets honey routine was conceived as a short story for radio. From January to September 2017, Acaster toured with The Trelogy, performing the first three shows in 14 locations over three nights. He performed them in a cycle at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. During The Trelogy, Acaster adapted the routines for narrative cohesion and to suit his faster delivery and new comedic style.
Acaster wrote Recap while touring and began to perform it on the third night. It makes use of his material from 2011 to 2013 and ties together the three preceding shows. The show is inspired by Rogue One, a film that depicts previously known events from the Star Wars universe, and fan theories that each Pixar film is set in the same universe. The recorded version ends with Acaster returning to the setup at the start of the first performance. In March 2018, the four performances were released as a serialised Netflix stand-up comedy special, Repertoire.
As individual performances, the routines received positive attention from critics. Recognise, Represent and Reset were three of Acaster's five consecutive shows nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Recognise won the New Zealand International Comedy Festival Award for Best International Show and Chortle Awards for Best Breakthrough Act and Best Show. Represent was nominated for a Chortle Award. Hugh Montgomery of The Independent rated Recognise four stars, summarising it as "an acquired taste" of "surreal set-pieces" and "observations as astute as they are trivial" with intelligent callbacks. Another four-star review—by Bruce Dessau in Evening Standard—found Represent to be Acaster's "most conceptually ambitious set yet", with "copious scope for laughs" and "absolute precision" to delivery, including pauses. Rupert Hawksley of The Daily Telegraph praised Reset as Acaster's best show to date, with "sharp punch-lines and meticulously crafted flourishes", albeit a slightly forced ending wherein Acaster delivers a rant to an audience member that is actually about himself.
With Repertoire, Acaster became the first British comic to have multiple stand-up routines released on Netflix. In 2021, it was streamed 840,000 times in the UK, third-most on Netflix for a British comedy special. It received positive reception upon release. Chortles Steve Bennett praised Recap as continuing Acaster's "uniquely offbeat" material, "precision of focus", nested twists within routines and gradually unfolding narrative. IndieWires Steve Greene compared it to theatre, lauding its "finely calibrated" jokes with twists—such as putting the punchline before the setup—but writing that some jokes go on too long. Clint Gage reviewed in IGN that Acaster "blends visual aids... inoffensively" in the "fantastically absurd journey" of the series.
The special received critical acclaim, winning Acaster a Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award and a Chortle Award. Five-star reviews praised Acaster's precise wording, absurdism, unexpected punchlines and narrative structure. A clip from the special of Acaster commenting on "edgy" comedians who attack transgender people went viral.
Hecklers in his increasingly personal routine led Acaster to want a break from performing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Acaster told interviewers that he did not want to commit to continuing stand-up comedy, with comments like: "Right now I don't want to do it again ever". Lockdown gave him the opportunity to reflect on the anxiety and crowded social spaces of stand-up comedy. However, he did not say he had 'quit'.
The Daily Telegraph gave it five stars, calling it "one of the funniest and most brilliantly constructed shows of the year". It won a 2024 Chortle Award for Best Tour.
He has also appeared on Would I Lie to You? (2007–), 8 Out of 10 Cats (2005–), Have I Got News For You (1990–), and The Dog Ate My Homework (2014–). Bethy Squires of Vulture reviewed his 2020 appearance on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year as "a great add to the madness", with his unpredictable actions including smearing ice-cream on protective COVID-19 dividers.
Acaster starred in series 7 of Taskmaster (2018), wherein five contestants perform tasks that are judged by Greg Davies, with help from his assistant Alex Horne. Radio Times readers voted in 2022 that the funniest moment of the show was an argument between Acaster and contestant Rhod Gilbert during a team task. In 2021, Paste ranked him as one of the six best contestants, describing his performance as "a mixed bag of aimless mess and point winning turns". Den of Geek reviewers listed Acaster's highlights on the programme: his recurring refusal to greet Horne; the 30-second musical composition "Over My Shoulder" under the name Clump Stump; a live recreation of Grand Theft Auto; and practicing for months.
The BBC Three series Sounds Random (2016) consisted of 15 short episodes in which Acaster interviews musicians. Using shuffle play on their iPod, the guest describes their relationship to songs. Dances by Acaster and the musician are choreographed to the music. It followed a similar show that Acaster hosted on FUBAR Radio, an internet radio station with a focus on comedy; an executive producer compared it to the radio programme Desert Island Discs (1942–).
In 2016, Acaster wrote a sitcom pilot for BBC Two called We The Jury, about a man who is called to jury duty for a murder trial after dreaming of serving as a juror. The Guardians Brian Logan said that the writing and "heightened reality" reflected Acaster's comedic style, but was less successful in the medium, while Mark Gibbings-Jones called it "delightfully off-kilter". The Observers Euan Ferguson panned its "cliched characters and surreal madness". The American channel CBS picked up the idea for a pilot, as Jury Duty, in 2018 and 2020, with Acaster as executive producer. The project has not come to fruition. Also in 2016, Acaster wrote for and narrated a Comedy Central pilot called Funny, Furry and Famous. The programme was a clip show with comedians reacting to viral videos of animals.
For Christmas 2017, Acaster starred in a mockumentary short for Sky Arts about turning on the Christmas lights in Kettering, James Acaster's Xmas.
Alongside Ed Gamble, Lloyd Langford and John Robins, Acaster created The Island (2022), while stuck in New York City due to a snowstorm. The panel show was hosted by Tom Allen and saw four comedians competing to create the best desert island. It was cancelled after one series on Dave, with critics panning the concept.
The documentary The Unofficial Science of Home Alone (2022) saw Acaster, along with the comedian Guz Khan, recreate stunts from the movies Home Alone (1990) and (1992). Alex Brooker interviews actors and crew from the original films. Production was initially scheduled for 2021, but the show premiered around Christmas 2022. Acaster described being very nervous during the stunts. Khan and Acaster had both referenced Home Alone in recent panel show appearances. In a three-star review for The Guardian, Stuart Heritage critiqued that the hosts should have been more active participants than "wisecracking observers" led by the engineer Zoe Laughlin. Heritage criticised it as inferior to the experimental science programme MythBusters (2003–2018).
Acaster appeared with Gamble on the fifth series of Celebrity Hunted (2023), which tasked participants with evading "Hunters" around the UK for a fortnight. During their appearance they ate in a restaurant, called into Gamble's Radio X programme, and released a video mocking the Hunters. Acaster also gave Gamble a tattoo. Acaster was caught after goading the Hunters to the Taskmaster house and squirting them with a water gun that he joked contained "piss"; Gamble escaped but was caught soon after. In a two-star review, is Emily Baker criticised that the pair and the Hunters all put "very little" effort into the game.
Acaster is the voice of Armadillo in the English dub of the Italian animated series This World Can't Tear Me Down (2023).
As a recurring joke, Acaster announces that it is his birthday every time he appears on the talk show Sunday Brunch.
The podcast has garnered nominations for five British Podcast Awards, two National Comedy Awards and a Chortle Award.British Podcast Awards:
National Comedy Awards:
Acaster conceived the podcast while performing Recognise in 2014. The Goon Show (1951–1960), an audio sitcom, was an inspiration; Acaster listened to it as a child and enjoyed that the humour was tailored to the medium. The podcast was crowdfunded through Kickstarter, raising £140,000, and produced by Mighty Bunny. A pilot was recorded with Kemah Bob and Kath Hughes. At 2023 Just for Laughs in London, Acaster improvised as Springleaf with Nish Kumar as co-host.
After its second episode, Springleaf topped the Spotify podcast chart in the UK and Ireland. It was nominated for an Audio and Radio Industry Award in 2024, under the Comedy category. Alexi Duggins of The Guardian recommended it as "a surreal and inventive slice of scripted comedy". Edward Wickham of Church Times analysed that it exploits podcast tropes to play "sophisticated games of subversion and irony", but also has "a charmingly traditional, pantomimic feel to the sitcom, reminiscent of radio comedy from the post-war era".
The book compiles Acaster's radio stories in chronological order, with some additional material. It was published in August, followed by a book tour in autumn 2017. Classic Scrapes appeared on The Sunday Times best-seller list and was listed as one of its best books of the year; it was nominated for a 2018 Chortle Award, with Chortles Steve Bennett finding humour in the "perfect combination of being socially awkward and painfully self-aware".
Jamie Atkins of Record Collector gave the book five stars, saying that Acaster "writes about music beautifully and economically" and "skilfully intersperses" album history with his mental state in 2017. Steve Bennett of Chortle rated the book three stars, calling the personal story "honest, unaffected, poignant – and, yes, entertaining", but commenting that the number of albums mentioned and their obscurity are overwhelming. The book was a Sunday Times Bestseller.
A tie-in podcast, James Acaster's Perfect Sounds, was launched on BBC Radio 1 in April 2020. Acaster asks guests to discuss one of his albums from 2016. Its initial run was 50 episodes. Two Christmas specials were recorded, one with Jeff Rosenstock, whose album Worry featured the track which gave Acaster's project its name: "Perfect Sound Whatever". By the end of the second series, 117 episodes had been produced. The podcast won the 2022 British Podcast Award in the Best Arts & Culture category, with the judges reviewing that it was humorous, had an "innovative format" and a host with "authentic engagement" in the material.
After giving uninteresting answers in interviews to why he was not on social media, Acaster began to fabricate increasingly elaborate reasons. He developed the book from the conceit: "what if you behaved the way you behave on social media in real life?" The book was published on 18 August 2022 by Headline Publishing Group and became a Sunday Times Bestseller. It charted sixth in the Hardback Non-fiction category and first in the Audiobook category.
The project began with Acaster retrieving his old drum kit from his parents' house, at their insistence. He began to record drum improvisations. He planned to create a mockumentary with Louis Theroux's production company in which he would transition into the music industry. In the mockumentary, John Kearns would play Acaster's manager and Acaster would pass Seb Rochford's music off as his own. Whilst music with Rochford was recorded, the idea had to be abandoned when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Instead, the project was developed into Temps through email communication with musicians Acaster contacted while working on Perfect Sound Whatever.
Temps' debut 10-track album, Party Gator Purgatory, was released by Bella Union on 19 May 2023 and explores genres including alt-rock, electronica, hip-hop and jazz. Acaster created its artwork with highlighter pens. Music videos were shot by Turtle Canyon Comedy. Initially, they feature Acaster in the 'Party Gator' costume—a lifesized toy alligator that he won at a fair as a child. After Acaster suffered an injured ankle, heatstroke and labyrinthitis, the costume was replaced by a puppet. Four singles were released: "no,no", "bleedthemtoxins", "partygatorresurrection" and "ificouldjust". With the release of the album came a music video for "partygatorRIP".
For Far Out, Tyler Golsen rated Party Gator Purgatory two out of five stars, summarising it as "a random soup that never congeals" due to its lack of direction, large number of contributing artists and combination of genres. However, Golsen identified a minority of songs with an overarching direction and an ambition that was occasionally successful. It was The Quietuss Album of the Week, with Alistair Shuttleworth praising that it was "genuinely excellent" as well as unique. Shuttleworth reviewed it as a "technicolour, maximalist, hugely inventive album" with a "sprightly, playful character" overall, but a number of "unexpectedly moving" commentaries on mental health.
Acaster's first film role was in Cinderella (2021) alongside the comedians James Corden and Romesh Ranganathan. They voiced three mice and appeared as three transformed footmen. Acaster was a replacement for John Mulaney. In (2024), Acaster played the scientist Dr. Lars Pinfield, a character similar to Egon Spengler. Ian Sandwell of Digital Spy called him an "enjoyable addition to the franchise". He also played Felix the Ironmonger in Seize Them! (2024).
Critics identified overarching narratives as a commonality to Acaster's routines. Jokes frequently reference earlier material, providing connections between unrelated topics. His material includes one-liners, lengthy stories and audience interaction. His observational comedy topics are offbeat, such as cheese graters or mariachi music, and he focuses on minutiae. He uses repetition as a comedic tool. Acaster makes use of props and physical comedy. He plays with the medium, for example by kneeling for a large part of one routine. A Channel 4 executive named Acaster as a comedian whose work falls between alternative comedy and traditional stand-up, due to his subversion of audience expectations and joke structures.
Acaster told Nouse that his fictional material reflected his personal life unconsciously. In Repertoire, he recognised the connections to his life and reveals them in the routines as a twist: one episode, Represent, is about loss of religious belief, told through a narrative arc of jury service. Harsh or sad material in Acaster's comedy, though explored deeply, arrives unexpectedly or is told through absurdist anecdotes. Acaster's work incorporates politics sparingly, though he has done routines on Brexit. He described to Nouse that at work-in-progress shows, where he often tests political material, the emotional side is more successful than the humorous side.
In an interview with i, Acaster said that he had been open about his mental health with his friends since his teenage years. He thought it would be self-indulgent to do this in his stand-up, but began doing so with Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999. In the routine, he discusses experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts while attending regular therapy. He also discussed these topics in his second book, Perfect Sound Whatever. Acaster told BBC News that he did not label anxiety and depression as such when he was younger, or recognise his anxiety in an earlier relationship. His first therapy session was in 2013.
Though raised Christians, Acaster is no longer religious. His routine Represent is indirectly about losing his faith.
| Released on DICE temporarily in 2019 and on Vimeo in 2021 | |
| Self |
| 2015 | Josh | Mike | 1 episode |
| Self | 2 episodes | ||
| 2016 | Sounds Random | Host | Television short; 15 episodes |
| 2017 | Absolutely Fine | Delivery Driver | 1 episode |
| James Acaster's Xmas | Host | Television short | |
| 2018 | Self | 4 episodes | |
| Taskmaster | Self | 10 episodes | |
| 2019-22 | Hypothetical | Host | 32 episodes |
| 2023 | This World Can't Tear Me Down | Armadillo (voice) | English dub |
| 2025 | Badjelly the Witch | Officer Appletree (voice) | 2 episodes |
| 2013–14 | James Acaster's Findings | Host | Radio | 5 episodes |
| 2018-25 | Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster | Host | Podcast | |
| 2020-24 | James Acaster's Perfect Sounds | Host | Podcast | |
| 2022 | Hypothetical: The Podcast | Host | Podcast | 11 episodes |
| 2014 | Sweet Home Ketteringa | Host | 6 episodes |
| 2016 | Sweet Home Lahnsteineringa | Host | 6 episodes |
| 2014-16 | Sweet Home Ketteringa | 13 episodes |
| 2016 | We the Jury | 1 episode |
| 2018 | 4 episodes | |
| 2020 | Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 | |
| 2022 | The Island | 8 episodes |
| 2024 | James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome |
| + ! scope=col | Year ! scope=col | Award ! scope=col | Category ! scope=col | Recipient ! scope=col | Result ! scope=col class=unsortable | ||
| 2012 | Edinburgh Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Show | Prompt | ||||
| 2013 | Edinburgh Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Show | Lawnmower | ||||
| 2014 | Edinburgh Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Show | Recognise | ||||
| New Zealand International Comedy Festival Awards | Best International Show | Self | |||||
| 2015 | Chortle Awards | Breakthrough Act | Self | ||||
| Best Show | Recognise | ||||||
| Edinburgh Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Show | Represent | |||||
| 2016 | Chortle Awards | Best Show | Represent | ||||
| Edinburgh Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Show | Reset | |||||
| 2018 | Chortle Awards | Book Award | James Acaster's Classic Scrapes | ||||
| 2019 | British Podcast Awards | Best Comedy Podcast | Off Menu | ||||
| Chortle Awards | Best Show | Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 | |||||
| Comedians' Comedian | Self | ||||||
| Helpmann Awards | Best Comedy Performer | Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 | |||||
| Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award | Most Outstanding Show | Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 | |||||
| 2020 | British Podcast Awards | Best Comedy Podcast | Off Menu | ||||
| Best Entertainment Podcast | Off Menu | ||||||
| 2021 | Critics' Choice Television Awards | Best Comedy Special | Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 | ||||
| 2022 | British Podcast Awards | Best Arts & Culture | James Acaster's Perfect Sounds | ||||
| Chortle Awards | Best Podcast | Off Menu | |||||
| Just for Laughs Awards | Rising Comedy Star | Self | |||||
| National Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Podcast | Off Menu | |||||
| Outstanding Male Comedy Entertainment Performance | Hypothetical | ||||||
| 2023 | National Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Podcast | Off Menu | ||||
| 2024 | Chortle Awards | Best Tour | Hecklers Welcome |
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