Alison Spittle is an Irish comedian,

comedy writer Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

, radio producer and actress. She has worked for

iRadio iRadio is a music-driven youth radio station broadcast in the Border, West, Mid-East and Midland regions of Ireland. The station is one of four music-driven youth stations that were licensed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to challe ...

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 ( ga, RTÉ Raidió 1) is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for th ...

and

Newstalk Newstalk (formerly NewsTalk 106) is a national independent radio station in Ireland. It is operated by News 106 Limited, a subsidiary of Bauer Media Audio Ireland, and broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Autho ...

and created sketches for ''

Republic of Telly ''Republic of Telly'' is a TV review and magazine programme on Irish public broadcaster, RTÉ Two. Presented by comedian Kevin McGahern, the programme is intended as a satirical examination of television, mocking various Irish and British TV chan ...

'' and has written and starred in her

RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

sit-com ''Nowhere Fast'' in 2017. She is the host and creator of the ''Alison Spittle Show''

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

hosted by headstuff.org.

Early life

Spittle was born in Harrow, London. Spittle's father was a builder. The family moved frequently, including to

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, Germany before moving to Spittle's mother's ancestral home of

County Westmeath "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Sovereign state, Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces o ...

Tyrrellspass Tyrrellspass (, IPA: �bʲaləxˈanˠˈtʲɪɾʲiəliː is a Georgian village in County Westmeath, Ireland. It is from Dublin, in the south of the county on the R446 (formerly the N6) road. Tyrrellspass won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition i ...

Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmeat ...

and finally Ballymore at age eight. She attended secondary school in

Moate Moate (; ) is a town in County Westmeath, Ireland. The name ''An Móta'' is derived from the term motte-and-bailey, as the Normans built an example of this type of fortification here. The earthwork is still visible behind the buildings on the m ...

Career

Graduating from college in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Spittle moved back to Westmeath where she worked as a researcher for

with comedian

Bernard O'Shea Bernard O'Shea is an Irish comedian from Durrow, County Laois, Ireland. He co-hosted the 2FM ''Breakfast Republic'' with Jennifer Zamparelli and Keith Walsh. He made his name on the satirical sketch TV show ''Republic of Telly''. O'Shea s ...

. She began working in comedy, supporting PJ Gallagher. This led to her participation in

So You Think You're Funny So You Think You're Funny? (SYTYF) is an annual stand-up comedy competition for new acts. The competition began in 1988 in the United Kingdom. The finals are held every August at The Gilded Balloon during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Past wi ...

's Irish heats, qualifying for rounds in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. She got a guest spot on the "Happy Hour" section of the ''

John Murray Show John Murray is an Irish journalist and broadcaster. Currently heard on Weekend Sport, he presented ''The John Murray Show'' on RTÉ Radio 1, "focus ngon lifestyle and entertainment items", filling the slot from 09:00 to 10:00 previously occupi ...

from this success. Her comedy shows have included ''Alison Spittle Needs an Agent'', ''Alison Spittle Discovers Hawaii'' (2015), and ''Worrier Princess'' (2017). She has performed at the

and

fringe festival Fringe theatre is theatre that is produced outside of the main theatre institutions, and that is often small-scale and non-traditional in style or subject matter. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Kemp, Robert, ''More that is Fre ...

s, as well as The Forbidden Fruit and Cork Comedy

festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival co ...

. Spittle wrote and starred in

web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

comedy shorts for

, and in sketches for ''

'' with Kevin McGahern. She was a regular contributor to ''

The Right Hook ''The Right Hook'' was a late afternoon to early evening talk programme broadcast on the Dublin, Ireland-based national Newstalk commercial radio station, and hosted by George Hook. It was the first radio show in Ireland to broadcast the show e ...

'' with

George Hook George Hook (born 19 May 1941) is an Irish people, Irish Broadcasting, broadcaster, journalist and rugby union pundit. He formerly hosted ''The Right Hook'' and ''High Noon'' on the Irish radio station Newstalk. He had a career as a rugby unio ...

. She is also a regular and well-loved co-host of The Guilty Feminist podcast with Deborah Francis-White. She appeared in the 2019 comedy film Extra Ordinary. In 2020, she and fellow comedian

Fern Brady Fern Marie Brady (born 26 May 1986) is a Scottish comedian, podcaster, and writer. Before becoming a stand-up comedian Brady worked as a journalist. She achieved fame as a stand-up comedian by entering stand-up competitions such as at the Edin ...

started a podcast for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

called ''Wheel of Misfortune''. Brady left the podcast in early 2021 and Spittle hosted the show with guests until

Kerry Katona Kerry Jayne Elizabeth Katona (born 6 September 1980) is a British media personality and singer. She was a member of girl group Atomic Kitten from 1998 until her first departure in 2001 and again from 2012 until her second departure in 2017. ...

became permanent co-host in November 2022.

''Nowhere Fast''

In 2017, she co-wrote six-part

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

''Nowhere Fast'' with her boyfriend Simon Mulholland. The series was directed by

Simon Gibney Shinawil (stylised as ShinAwiL) Productions is an Irish television production company. It was founded by producer Larry Bass and director Simon Gibney in 1999. It was acquired by Screentime (branded as Screentime ShinAwiL) as part of a deal to p ...

. The show sees Angela (played by Spittle) moving back down to Ballybeag in the

midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

, having lost her job on a radio show in Dublin following a high-profile libel case. The series began in November 2017, and was generally well received by critics and viewers.

References

External links

The Alison Spittle Show
podcast * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spittle, Alison Irish women comedians Irish stand-up comedians Living people People from County Westmeath Irish comedy writers Irish television writers Irish women television writers Irish expatriates in England People from Harrow, London Women television writers 1989 births 21st-century Irish comedians Irish women screenwriters 21st-century Irish screenwriters Irish sketch comedians