Richard Gadd (born 11 May 1989) is a Scottish actor, comedian, and writer, best known for creating and starring in the 2024
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
drama series ''
Baby Reindeer'', which was based on his one-man
dark comedy
Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
show of the same name.
Gadd won three
Primetime Emmy Awards
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...
for writing, producing, and acting in the series.
Gadd also won a
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...
for the series.
Early life and education
Richard Gadd was born and brought up in the village of
Wormit
Wormit is a village on the south shore of the Firth of Tay in north-east Fife, Scotland. It is located at the southern end of the Tay Rail Bridge and together with Woodhaven and Newport-on-Tay, Wormit is a part of The Burgh of Newport-on-Tay. T ...
, in the
Fife
Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...
area of Scotland,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Gadd has described himself as a "middle-class guy from Fife", and being "from a remote part of Scotland”, although Wormit is actually across the river from the central Scottish city of
Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
.
Gadd's father is microbiologist and mycologist
Geoffrey Michael Gadd, currently professor at the
University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...
.
Gadd went to school at
Madras College in nearby
St Andrews
St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...
. During his time at Madras College, he took on the lead role in the production of
Macbeth
''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...
, where he was praised for his “wonderfully physical” performance.
Gadd then studied English literature and theatre studies at the
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...
, graduating in 2011.
Career
Comedy career
Gadd began performing stand-up comedy and musical comedy while he was a student at Glasgow University in 2008. He entered the Glasgow heats of the
Chortle
Chortle is a British comedy website launched in 2000 by Steve Bennett. The site is a major source of comedy news in the UK. It also reviews comedy shows nationwide, including extensively at the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and presents the C ...
new comedian awards in 2009.
In 2010 Gadd performed his first
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...
show, ''Richard Gadd: 6 And Half A 7''. In 2011, Gadd was a Chortle Student Comedy Awards finalist. In 2012, Gadd co-performed in Edinburgh Fringe show ''Gadd, Kirk And Winning – Well, This Is Awkward…'', and trained at the
Oxford School of Drama, completing a one-year course in 2012. Gadd then moved to
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to pursue his comedy career.
Gadd's 2013 Edinburgh Fringe show was ''Cheese & Crack Whores'', and his 2014 show, ''Breaking Gadd'', both of which went on to have runs at London's
Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, and Soho Theatre Walthamstow in north-east London. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three pe ...
.
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
wrote that his first two shows "purported to be autobiographical accounts of the young Scotsman's bleak life, a roundelay of failed relationships, blackouts, abusive therapists and fratricide."
Writing in 2015, ''The Guardian'' described him as a "schlock comic with a name for gaudy multimedia tales of drug addiction and sexual violence, mental illness and gore". Gadd's 2015 Edinburgh Fringe show, ''Waiting for Gaddot'' was intentionally more mainstream than its predecessors, bringing Gadd more success and wider attention.
''Waiting for Gaddot'' won an Amused Moose Comedy Award in 2015 as well as a Scottish Comedy Award for Best Solo Show in 2016. It was also nominated for a '
Malcolm Hardee
Malcolm Hardee (5 January 1950 – 31 January 2005) was an English comedian and comedy club proprietor.
His high reputation among his peers rests on his outrageous publicity stunts and on the help and advice he gave to successful British Alte ...
Award' for Innovation and a
Chortle Award
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 webs ...
for Innovation.
Gadd's 2016 Fringe show ''Monkey See Monkey Do'' won the
Edinburgh Comedy Award for
Best Comedy Show and was also nominated for a
Total Theatre Award for Innovation. Later that year, Gadd won a
Chortle
Chortle is a British comedy website launched in 2000 by Steve Bennett. The site is a major source of comedy news in the UK. It also reviews comedy shows nationwide, including extensively at the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and presents the C ...
Comedian's Comedian Award and was nominated for an
Off West End Theatre Award for Best Performer. The show then had several sell-out runs at Soho Theatre, toured the UK and Europe, and had a run at the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...
, where it was nominated for the 2017
Barry Award. In 2017 it was broadcast on
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
as part of their ''Soho Theatre Live'' series.
''Baby Reindeer''
While a jobbing comedian, Gadd worked as a bartender at
The Hawley Arms pub in
Camden Town
Camden Town () is an area in the London Borough of Camden, around north-northwest of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is identified in the London Plan as one of 34 major centres in Greater London.
Laid out as a residential distri ...
, London. It was here he would encounter 'Martha', who would go on to become the main character in ''Baby Reindeer''.
''Baby Reindeer'' began as an Edinburgh fringe show, in 2019, a dark comedy, chronicling Gadd's experiences of being
stalked by 'Martha' and
sexually assaulted
Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexua ...
by a man he met earlier in his career. ''Baby Reindeer'' would prove to be Gadd's breakout success, winning two Edinburgh Fringe awards:
''The Scotsman'' Fringe First Award for New Writing and a
Stage Award for Acting Excellence. The show then went on to a five-week run at
The Bush Theatre in London where it won an Off West End Theatre Award for Best Video Design, as well as receiving a nomination in the Best Performer category. The show later transferred to the
Ambassador's Theatre in London's
West End but was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. A few months later, the show went on to win the
.
In April 2024,
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
released a
seven-episode drama based on Gadd's play, and billed as a 'true story'.
Gadd lost 28 kilograms to play the fictionalized version of himself in order to feel "vulnerable and fragile". ''Baby Reindeer'' also featured a fictionalized version of Gadd’s parents. According to a report by
Barclays bank
Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...
, the enormous success and popularity of ''Baby Reindeer'' resulted in a notable annual increase in spending on Netflix digital subscriptions. The woman depicted as 'Martha' in ''Baby Reindeer'', portrayed as having stalked and sexually assaulted Gadd, was quickly identified as Fiona Harvey, a Scottish lawyer.
Harvey denied Gadd's accusations and depiction of her, stated that she has never been to jail, as depicted in the Netflix show, and is pursuing a multi-million pound defamation claim against Netflix.
A former colleague has also questioned Gadd's version of events as depicted in ''Baby Reindeer''.
Although not directly named in Harvey's lawsuit against Netflix, Gadd has fully supported Netflix's defence against Harvey's claims, and requested to have her lawsuit dismissed, defending the veracity of ''Baby Reindeer'' and re-iterating accusations made against Harvey for stalking.
Acting and screenwriting
As an actor, Gadd had multiple credits in various television series, television films and short films, before his breakout success in ''Baby Reindeer''. Gadd's acting career began with a role in one episode of
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...
's ''Scot Squad'', in 2014, and continued with an appearance in four episodes of E4's ''Tripped'' in 2015. He starred opposite
Daniel Mays
Daniel Mays (born 31 March 1978) is an English actor having had television roles in ''EastEnders'' (2000), ''Rehab'' (2005), '' Red Riding'' (2008), '' Ashes to Ashes'' (2010), '' Outcasts'' (2011), '' Mrs Biggs'', ''Line of Duty'', '' Des'' ...
in the 2017 BAFTA-nominated
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
single drama ''
Against the Law''. Gadd's other acting credits include BBC Three's ''
Clique
A clique (AusE, CanE, or ; ), in the social sciences, is a small group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests rather than include others. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardles ...
'', Sky Arts's ''One Normal Night'', and Sky One's ''
Code 404''. He has also appeared in several short films.
As a screenwriter, Gadd wrote for Netflix's ''
Sex Education
Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...
'', and has written episodes of ''Ultimate Worrier'' for
Dave
Dave may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the 1993 film
* ''Dave'' (TV series), a 2020 American comedy series
* ...
and ''
The Last Leg
''The Last Leg'' (known during its first series as ''The Last Leg with Adam Hills'' and in Australia as ''Adam Hills: The Last Leg'') is a British late-night television humorous talk/sketch show that originally ran alongside the 2012 Summer Par ...
'' for
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
. In 2022, Gadd starred as Conrad Lennox in three episodes of the
Disney Plus
Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming media service owned and operated by Disney Streaming, the streaming division of Disney Entertainment, a major business segment of the Walt Disney Company. The servic ...
series
''Wedding Season''.
Gadd has also had several projects aired on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
and
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...
. Following the success of ''Baby Reindeer'', Gadd is now writing a drama for the BBC titled ''
Half Man'', also starring
Jamie Bell
Andrew James Matfin Bell (born 14 March 1986) is an English actor. He rose to prominence for his debut role in ''Billy Elliot'' (2000), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, becoming one of the youngest winners of ...
. Filming began in Glasgow in February 2025.
Personal life
Gadd identifies as bisexual.
Gadd has struggled with alcohol and substance abuse, telling ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' in 2015 "I'm healthy and sober now. I still get real bad downers. But I feel better than I was."
Gadd is an avid football fan, supporting
Dundee United
Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...
and following the
Scotland football team. Gadd was spotted at a match at
Euro 2024 and
WWE Raw
''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE. It currently airs Live television, live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Netflix. The show fe ...
debut on
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
.
In June 2025, Gadd played for the Rest of the World team in the
Soccer Aid
Soccer Aid is an English annual charity event that has raised over £106 million in aid of UNICEF UK, through ticket sales and donations from the public. The televised event is an exhibition-style football match between two teams, England and ...
for
Unicef
UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...
game, and were victorious defeating England XI 5 - 4.
Gadd has lived in London long term.
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
See also
*
List of comedians
A comedian is one who entertains through comedy, such as jokes and other forms of humour. Following is a list of comedians, comedy groups, and comedy writers.
Comedians
''(sorted alphabetically by surname)''
A
* Rose Abdoo (born 1962)
* R ...
*
List of Edinburgh Comedy Award winners
The Edinburgh Comedy Awards, formerly known as the Perrier Comedy Awards, the if.comedy awards and briefly as the if.comeddies, are a group of prizes awarded annually since 1981 to comedy shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Each award curren ...
*
List of University of Glasgow people
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gadd, Richard
1989 births
Living people
21st-century Scottish comedians
21st-century Scottish LGBTQ people
21st-century Scottish male actors
21st-century Scottish male writers
Alumni of the Oxford School of Drama
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Bisexual comedians
Bisexual male writers
Bisexual screenwriters
British bisexual male actors
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People educated at Madras College
People from Wormit
Scottish bisexual men
Scottish bisexual writers
Scottish male comedians
Scottish male television actors
Scottish male voice actors
Scottish male television writers
Scottish stand-up comedians
21st-century Scottish screenwriters
Scottish LGBTQ screenwriters
Male actors from Fife