Chris Tordoff is an English-born Irish comedian, actor, writer,

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

, and

streamer Streamer or streamers may refer to: * a person who streams online on an internet platform like twitch or youtube * Pennon, a small pointed flag * Streamer, a kind of confetti consisting of strips of paper or other material * Streamer, a common nam ...

. He is best known for co-creating the

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

mockumentary series ''

Hardy Bucks ''Hardy Bucks'' is an Irish comedy series, filmed in mockumentary style and following the fictional exploits of a group of twentysomething slackers living in small-town Ireland. It started out as an online series of largely improvised scenes. ...

'', in which he plays drug dealer Francis "The Viper" Higgins. He has reprised the role in other media, such as ''

The Hardy Bucks Movie ''The Hardy Bucks Movie'' is a 2013 Irish comedy film based on the RTÉ Two sitcom ''Hardy Bucks'', directed by Mike Cockayne. The film follows the characters from the TV series, a group of Irish slackers who travel to Poland to follow the Repub ...

'', the comedy series ''

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 ''Viper's View'', and on his own

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

channels.

Early life

Tordoff was born in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

and moved to the Irish town of

Swinford Swinford () is a town in County Mayo, Ireland. It is surrounded by a number of smaller villages, including Midfield and Meelick. It is just off the N5 road, located 18 km (11 mi) from Ireland West Airport Knock (formerly known as K ...

as a teenager.

Career

Tordoff co-created ''

'' with his friend Martin Maloney as a web series on

in 2009. He co-wrote, directed, and starred in it as antagonist Francis "The Viper" Higgins, a small-time drug dealer. In 2009, it won

RTÉ Television RTÉ Television is a department of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the Republic of Ireland's state controlled national broadcaster. Its first channel was Teilifís Éireann, which began broadcasting on 31 December 1961. Since the 1960s, RT ...

's Storyland competition, and was commissioned as a series for television. For the second series, Liz Gill took over directorial duties from Tordoff. He reprised the role in the 2013 film based on the series, ''

''. He was also a guest on ''

'' on RTÉ. Tordoff also creates online comedy on his own YouTube channel, under the name Francis Higgins. One series, ''World News'', was a parodical news show inspired by a segment on

Euronews Euronews (styled on-air in lowercase as euronews) is a European television news network, headquartered in Lyon, France. The network began broadcasting on 1 January 1993 and covers world news from a European perspective. The majority of Eurone ...

called ''No Comment''. Tordoff used clips from ''No Comment'' to produce his own videos, but was threatened with legal action by Euronews in 2016. This led to Tordoff being commissioned by

RT UK RT UK, also known as Russia Today, was a free-to-air television news channel based in the United Kingdom. It was part of the RT network, a Russian state-controlled international television network funded by the federal tax budget of the Russia ...

to produce 50 episodes of ''Viper's View'', as an insert for ''

Sam Delaney's News Thing ''Sam Delaney's News Thing'' is television programme produced by RT UK and presented by British journalist and broadcaster Sam Delaney, that aired every Saturday night from November 2015 until June 2018. Notable guest appearances included Ken ...

''. In October 2016, Tordoff was nominated for an

IFTA Ifta is a former municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it has been part of the town Treffurt Treffurt () is a small town in the western region of the Wartburgkreis district which belongs to the f ...

in the Best Male Performance category for his role as Francis Higgins. Since 2019, Tordoff has regularly streamed video games on his YouTube channel, playing them in character either as Francis Higgins, Tommy Shlug (a bus driver from the west of Ireland), Conor Williams (a D4 sales executive for

Mercedes Mercedes may refer to: People * Mercedes (name), a Spanish feminine name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or last name Automobile-related * Mercedes (marque), the pre-1926 brand name of German automobile m ...

Ireland), or Fontaine (a gritty New York detective), as well as others.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

1980s births Living people 21st-century Irish male actors Year of birth missing (living people) Male actors from Leeds People from Swinford, County Mayo {{Ireland-actor-stub