Yuriko Kotani 2019 Glastonbury Festival 03 crop

Yuriko Kotani is an England-based Japanese comedian and the BBC Radio New Comedy Award 2015 winner. She was the first Japanese person to win the award. She debuted her solo show, Somosomo, at Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. Kotani's comedy makes fun of the cultural differences between London and her homeland of Japan. She has been noted for delivering her comedy in English, despite Japanese being her first language.

Early life and career

Born and raised in Japan, Kotani moved to the UK in 2005 and began performing

stand-up Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

in 2014.

Breakthrough

In 2015 Kotani was nominated for a number of awards for her comedy. Most notably, in November 2015 she won the BBC Radio New Comedy Award. She was named as "One To Watch" by '' Time Out'' in 2015. She went on to become first runner-up in '' So You Think You're Funny 2015?'', won the Brighton Comedy Festival Squawker Award 2015, placed third in the

Leicester Square Theatre The Leicester Square Theatre is a 400-seat theatre in Leicester Place, immediately north of Leicester Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It was previously known as Notre Dame Hall, Cavern in the Town and The Venue. The theatre hosts st ...

New Comedian of the Year 2015, and was nominated for

Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year The ''Leicester Mercury'' Comedian of the Year is held during the Leicester Comedy Festival every February. All the finalists picked are nominated by the UK's top comedy clubs and must meet certain criteria. The competition is sponsored by the ''Le ...

in 2016. On the radio, Kotani has been interviewed on ''The Comedy Club'' on

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...

. Kotani has made a number of appearances on British television. In 2016, Kotani appeared on series 2 of ''

Russell Howard's Stand Up Central ''Rob Delaney's Stand Up Central'' (formerly known as ''Russell Howard's Stand Up Central'' and ''Chris Ramsey's Stand Up Central'') is a British stand-up comedy television show. It started broadcasting on Comedy Central on 29 April 2015, and ran ...

''. In March 2017, Kotani made her TV acting debut in the

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

series, ''

Pls Like ''Pls Like'' is a BBC television satirical mockumentary, produced by Left Bank Pictures and screened on BBC Three online in 2017. A second series followed in 2018 and a third in 2021. The first series starred Liam Williams as himself, in a qu ...

''. In January 2018, Kotani appeared on the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

panel show, ''

The Dog Ate My Homework "The dog ate my homework" (or "My dog ate my homework") is an English expression which carries the suggestion of being a common, poorly fabricated excuse made by schoolchildren to explain their failure to turn in an assignment on time. The phras ...

''. In 2020, Kotani appeared in an episode of ''Paul Hollywood Eats Japan'' on Channel 4. In May 2021 she starred alongside

Rich Keeble Rich Keeble is a British actor and voiceover artist. He has appeared as a regular on two series of '' The Emily Atack Show'' and in television series such as ''Ghosts,'' '' Trying, Ted Lasso, Warren, Doctors'', ''Porters'', '' The Rebel'' and ...

as a scientist extracting DNA from present and former players in a comedy film unveiling Southampton Football Club's new 2021/22 season kit. Players featured in the film included

James Ward-Prowse James Michael Edward Ward-Prowse (born 1 November 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for club Southampton and the England national team. Originally a member of Southampton's youth teams, Ward-Prowse ...

Matt Le Tissier Matthew Paul Le Tissier (; born 14 October 1968) is a former professional footballer. Born in Guernsey, he won eight caps for the England national team. Le Tissier spent his entire professional club career with Southampton before turning to non ...

and

Francis Benali Francis Vincent Benali (born 30 December 1968) is an English football coach and former professional player. As a player, he was a full back who notably spent most of his career in the Premier League with Southampton, during a sixteen-year spe ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kotani, Yuriko Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Japanese stand-up comedians British stand-up comedians Japanese women comedians Japanese expatriates in the United Kingdom Japanese comedians British women comedians 21st-century British comedians