Samuel Campbell (born 1991/1992) is an Australian

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehear ...

and actor. He won the

Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award (formerly the Barry Award and the Stella Award) is an annual prize presented to the most outstanding comedy act at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. History It has been awarded since 1 ...

in 2018 and the main prize at the

Edinburgh Comedy Festival Edinburgh Comedy Festival was a short-lived festival of comedy shows which operated during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2008 and 2009. Effectively a marketing campaign for the "Big Four" venues at the Fringe - Assembly, Gilded Ballo ...

in 2022.

Early life and education

Samuel Campbell was born in in the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau, which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It has very deep, rich basaltic soils and the main industry is agriculture. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the B ...

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

. In

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s, he has mentioned growing up around the regions of

Yungaburra Yungaburra is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Yungaburra had a population of 1,272 people. Geography Yungaburra is on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland. The ...

and Atherton, and mentioned the town of

Lake Eacham, Queensland Lake Eacham is a rural locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Lake Eacham had a population of 459 people. Geography The locality is bounded to the west and south-west by Lake Barrine Road and to the south-east by ...

. He was a small child growing up, and his parents considered placing him under

growth hormone therapy Growth hormone therapy refers to the use of growth hormone (GH) as a prescription medication—it is one form of hormone therapy. Growth hormone is a peptide hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that stimulates Cell growth, growth and cell (b ...

. On a February 2024 episode of the British panel show '' Would I Lie To You?'', Campbell stated he was a

body double In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes for another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...

for an Australian

headlice The head louse (''Pediculus humanus capitis'') is an obligate ectoparasite of humans. Head lice are wingless insects that spend their entire lives on the human scalp and feed exclusively on human blood. Humans are the only known hosts of this sp ...

comb advert called "Nitbusters" when he was around 10. Campbell went to high school in

Bundaberg Bundaberg () is the major regional city in the Wide Bay-Burnett region of the state of Queensland, Australia. It is the List of cities in Australia by population, ninth largest city in the state. The Bundaberg central business district is situa ...

, and studied animation at the

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

. Campbell lived in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

from the ages of 17 to 21, and in 2011 he was a Queensland finalist for the national

Raw Comedy Raw Comedy, stylised as RAW Comedy, is an Australian annual competition for emerging stand-up comedians held by Melbourne International Comedy Festival. History and description The Raw Comedy competition was established at the Melbourne Inter ...

competition. By 2015, Campbell had relocated to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Career

Campbell performs

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

live as well as creating comedy web shows.

Australia

He made a short series that was broadcast on '' Comedy Central Australia '' and was a guest on ABC TV's ''

The Checkout ''The Checkout'' was an Australian consumer affairs television series. The show's first series of 10 episodes premiered on 21 March 2013 on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television station ABC TV. A second series consisting of ...

''. In the 2010s, Campbell was part of the

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

collective Skills in Time, with Australian comedians Greg Larsen and

Henry Stone Henry Stone (June 3, 1921 – August 7, 2014), born Henry David Epstein, was an American record company executive and producer whose career spanned the era from R&B in the early 1950s through the disco boom of the 1970s to the 2010s. He was be ...

. In 2017, he had a regular weekly segment on

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

radio, featured in the web-series ''Dayne's World'', and performed stand-up at Sydney comedy clubs. In 2018, he was frequently appearing alongside

Anne Edmonds Anne Elizabeth Gabrielle Edmonds (born 11 October 1979) is an Australian comedian and actress best known for her stand-up work and for creating and starring in the ABC comedy series ''The Edge of the Bush''. Beginning her career in comedy at 29 ...

as Connor Bidou, the son of her character Helen Bidou.

UK

He moved to the

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 ...

, having acquired a Global Talent visa in 2022. Campbell performed at the 2022

Edinburgh Festival 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 ...

with his show simply entitled ''Comedy Show'', which won the main prize. It was praised by the judges for its originality, surrealism and unexpected jokes. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' described him as "a nutball, but he controls his loopiness with deceptive precision" and said that the show was "exhausting, exhilarating and a touch of genius". Brian Logan in ''

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 ...

'' said "Campbell's imagination produces wonderfully adhesive images... there is now and then a core of robust observational comedy beneath Campbell's loopiness... None of it has anything to do with anything: it's the incongruity, taken to uncommon lengths, that's funny". ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' review mentioned "one-liners and absurdist whorls of madcap". In 2023, Campbell was a contestant on the sixteenth series of

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 ...

comedy gameshow '' Taskmaster'', winning the series. On 29 March 2024, Campbell started co-hosting the ''Lucy & Sam's Perfect Brains'' podcast with comedian Lucy Beaumont. In June/July 2024, he toured the UK with his stand-up set ''Wobservations''. In March 2024, it was announced that Campbell would be piloting a

series called ''Make That Movie!'', in which he will create films based on the dreams of strangers.

Recognition and awards

In 2016 Campbell won the Director’s Choice Award, and in 2018 he won the Barry Award for Most Outstanding Show, 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 ...

. He was the winner of the main prize at the

Edinburgh Comedy Awards The Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Establ ...

at the 2022

. In February 2023, Campbell was nominated at the UK

National Comedy Awards The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. The British Comedy Awards (1 ...

in the Best Stand-up category for his show ''Comedy Show''. In February 2024, Campbell was nominated in the Best TV Comic category and Best Breakthrough Act category at 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 webs ...

. He won in the Best Breakthrough Act category and was voted Comedian's Comedian by his peers. In 2025, Campbell won the

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 ...

in the Best Tour category for Wobservations.

Personal life

On the ''Off Menu'' podcast with

James Acaster James William Acaster (; born 9 January 1985) is an English comedian, presenter, podcaster and actor. As well as the stand-up specials ''James Acaster: Repertoire, Repertoire'' and ''Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999'', he is known for co-hosting ...

and

Ed Gamble Edward Stephenson Gamble (born 10 March 1986) is an English comedian and television presenter. He is best known for co-presenting the ''Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster, Off Menu'' podcast with James Acaster as well as his appearances ...

in March 2024, Campbell said that he had been

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

for three years.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stand-up Tours

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Sam Australian stand-up comedians Living people Edinburgh Festival performers 1991 births Australian expatriates in England People from Far North Queensland Australian podcasters