Justin Matthew Edwards is a British actor and writer.

Screen career

His television work includes the role of Ben Swain in political comedy '' The Thick of It'', the lead role in Channel 5 sitcom '' Respectable'', roles in ''

Black Books ''Black Books'' is a British sitcom created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan, and written by Moran, Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley, Linehan and Arthur Mathews. It was broadcast on Channel 4, running for three series from 2000 to 2004. Starring Mo ...

'', '' Endeavour'', '' The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'', ''

The Old Guys ''The Old Guys'' is a British sitcom that revolves around two ageing housemates: Tom Finnan (Roger Lloyd-Pack) and Roy Bowden (Clive Swift). The pair live across the street from Sally (Jane Asher), whom they both find attractive. Tom moved in wi ...

'', '' Skins'', ''

Secret Diary of a Call Girl ''Secret Diary of a Call Girl'' is a British drama television series that aired from 27 September 2007 to 22 March 2011 on ITV2, based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous Belle de Jour. It stars Billie Piper as Belle, a high-end London ...

'', '' The Trip'', '' Veep'''', '' Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle'', and ''

Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fiction ...

'' amongst many others. He won an RTS Award in 2014 for Best Male Actor for his performance in ''

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intui ...

'' ("The Daughters of Jerusalem"). He has played

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes '' Top Gear'' and '' The Grand Tour'' alongside R ...

three times for television, twice for''

Harry & Paul ''Harry & Paul'' (originally titled ''Ruddy Hell! It's Harry & Paul'') is a British sketch comedy show starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 13 April 2007. Prior to broadcast it was trailed as ''The ...

'', and once for ''

Murder in Successville ''Murder in Successville'' is a British sitcom with improvisational elements created by Andy Brereton and Avril Spary. The series aired on BBC Three from 6 May 2015 to 24 May 2017. ''Murder in Successville'' stars Tom Davis as DI Desmond Sleet ...

''. In 2016 he played Mr Rumbold in the BBC remake of ''Are You Being Served?'' His film work includes the role of Charles Vernon in Whit Stillman's ''

Love & Friendship ''Love & Friendship'' is a 2016 period comedy film written and directed by Whit Stillman. Based on Jane Austen's epistolary novel '' Lady Susan'', written c. 1794, the film stars Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, and Emma Gree ...

'', Spartak Sokolov in ''

The Death of Stalin ''The Death of Stalin'' is a 2017 political satire black comedy film written and directed by Armando Iannucci and co-written by David Schneider and Ian Martin with Peter Fellows. Based on the French graphic novel ''La Mort de Staline'' (201 ...

'', John Forster in '' The Man Who Invented Christmas'', Inept Policemen in both ''

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

'' and ''

Thor 2 ''Thor: The Dark World'' is a 2013 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Thor, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to '' Thor'' (2011) and the eighth ...

'', a fop in '' The Duchess'', Leo in '' Yesterday'', and as

Giant Haystacks Martin Austin Ruane (10 October 1946 – 29 November 1998) was an English professional wrestler of Irish parentage, best known by the ring name Giant Haystacks. He was one of the best-known wrestlers on the British wrestling scene in the 1970s ...

and Gan in

Tim Plester Timothy Marc Plester (born 10 September 1970) is a British actor, playwright, and filmmaker, best known for the documentaries ''Way of the Morris'' and ''The Ballad of Shirley Collins'' - plus a multifarious number of cameo roles for film and TV ...

's short films ''World of Wrestling'' and ''Blakes Junction Seven''.

Radio

Edwards is a regular voice on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

, having appeared on ''

The News Quiz ''The News Quiz'' is a British topical panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4. History ''The News Quiz'' was first broadcast in 1977 with Barry Norman as chairman. Subsequently, it was chaired by Barry Took from 1979 to 1981, Simon Hoggart f ...

'', '' Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive'', ''

Cabin Pressure Cabin pressurization is a process in which conditioned air is pumped into the cabin of an aircraft or spacecraft in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for passengers and crew flying at high altitudes. For aircraft, this air is ...

'', ''The Odd Half Hour'', ''Kevin Eldon Will See You Now'', '' Double Science'', '' Mr Blue Sky'' and ''

Listen Against ''Listen Against'' is a BBC Radio 4 series. Its title is a play on the name of the BBC's Listen Again service. Presented by Jon Holmes and Alice Arnold, it takes a surreal look at the week's radio. Created by Jon Holmes, it is co-written by Bil ...

'' amongst many others. He hosted five series of ''

Newsjack ''Newsjack'' was a British satirical sketch show which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra between 2009 and 2021. It was hosted by Miles Jupp (2009-Mar 2011), Justin Edwards (Sep 2011-2013), Romesh Ranganathan (2014), Nish Kumar (2015-2016), ...

'', the topical sketch show on

Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...

and wrote and performed in

Miles Jupp Miles Hugh Barrett Jupp (born 8 September 1979) is an English actor, singer, and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian before playing the role of the inventor Archie in the children's television series '' Balamory''. He also played ...

's radio sitcom ''

In and Out of the Kitchen ''In and Out of the Kitchen'' is a BBC radio comedy written by Miles Jupp. Its first series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011. The show revolves around the lives of fussy perfectionist culinary writer Damien Trench (played by Miles Jupp) an ...

''. In 2016 he played Anthony Trollope in ''Trollope And The Labours of Hercules''. In 2017, he headed up the cast of ''Rum Bunch'', with Mel Giedroyc and Dave Mounfield, and starred alongside Meera Syal in ''Mrs Sidhu Investigates''.

Stage

His theatre work includes ''Twitstorm'' at the Park Theatre, ''The Rivals'' at the Arcola Theatre, ''The Opinion Makers'' at the Colchester Mercury, ''Art'' at the Holders Festival in Barbados, and the role of Rasputin in ''I Killed Rasputin'' at the Assembly Theatre in Edinburgh. In January 2018 he joined the cast of ''The Ferryman'' as Tom Kettle and reprised the role for the Broadway production which opened in October 2018. In 2020 he joined the RSC to play Antipholus of Ephesus in ''

The Comedy of Errors ''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. It ...

''.

Live comedy

Edwards won the Perrier Award (Best Newcomer) at the

2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

as a member of the sketch trio The Consultants, alongside Neil Edmond and James Rawlings. They went on to write and record four series for BBC Radio 4. As booze-sodden children's entertainer Jeremy Lion he performed four acclaimed live shows at the Edinburgh Festival and Melbourne Comedy Festival, and was nominated four years running for the

Chortle Awards The Chortle Awards were set up in 2002 by the comedy website Chortle to honour the best of established stand-up comics currently working in the UK. A panel of reviewers draw up a shortlist, which is presented for public vote at the Chortle websit ...

as best character act, winning in 2006 and 2004. He was nominated for the Perrier Award in 2005 and 2006 he had a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival with his one-man musical show ''Unaccompanied As I Am''.

Writing

He was one of the main writers and performers on the BAFTA-nominated children's show '' Sorry, I've Got No Head'' as well as co-devising and writing the CBBC sitcom ''Pixelface'' and writing for ''

Horrible Histories ''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more. In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpor ...

''. He wrote and starred in the sitcoms '' Double Science'' (with Ben Willbond) and '' Buy Me Up TV'' for Radio Four, and one of his episodes of ''In and Out of the Kitchen'' won the BBC Audio drama Award for Best Scripted Comedy Drama in 2015.

Personal life

Born in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, Edwards studied Drama at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

before training at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. He is married to

Lucy Porter Lucy Donna Porter (born 27 January 1973) is an English actress, writer and comedian. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Brighton Festival and many clubs around Britain. She is also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel sh ...

and they have two children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Justin 1972 births Living people 20th-century British screenwriters 20th-century English comedians 20th-century English male actors 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English singers 20th-century English writers 20th-century British male singers 21st-century British screenwriters 21st-century English comedians 21st-century English male actors 21st-century English male writers 21st-century English writers 21st-century British male singers British male television writers English male comedians English male film actors English male singers English male television actors Male actors from Southampton