Andrew Zaltzman (born 6 October 1974) is a British comedian and author who largely deals in political and sport-related material. He has worked with

John Oliver John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention ...

, with their work together including '' Political Animal'', ''

The Department ''The Department'' is a satirical comedy on BBC Radio 4 about a secret organisation with the power to influence every aspect of your life. Chris Addison, John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman star as Research Team 32, an eccentric three-man think-tan ...

'', and ''

The Bugle ''The Bugle'' is a satirical news podcast, created by John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman in 2007. It is currently hosted by Zaltzman and a rotating cast of co-hosts including Alice Fraser, Nish Kumar, Anuvab Pal, Hari Kondabolu, Tom Ballard, and ...

''. Since 2016 he has been a

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

for

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

's ''

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 LW ...

'' cricket commentaries, and since 2020 the presenter of Radio 4's ''

The News Quiz ''The News Quiz'' is a British topical panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4. History ''The News Quiz'' was first broadcast in 1977 with Barry Norman as chairman. Subsequently, it was chaired by Barry Took from 1979 to 1981, Simon Hoggart from ...

Early life

Born in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, west London, Zaltzman is of

Lithuanian-Jewish Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent area ...

ancestry. He is the son of South African sculptor Zack Zaltzman and is the older brother of

Helen Zaltzman Helen Zaltzman is an English podcaster, broadcaster and writer. She produces the linguistics podcast ''The Allusionist'', the entertainment podcast ''Answer Me This!'', and the ''Veronica Mars'' recap podcast ''Veronica Mars Investigations''. ...

, of ''The Allusionist'' and ''

Answer Me This! ''Answer Me This!'' was a comedy podcast by Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann made between 2007 and 2021 in which they answered questions submitted by the general public. It was one of the first independent British podcasts to gain success, and led ...

'' podcasts. From his prep school,

Holmewood House School Holmewood House School is an IAPS independent, co-educational preparatory school for boys and girls aged 3–13, in Langton Green, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent. The building is a Decimus Burton mansion, originally called Mitchells, rebuilt in 18 ...

Langton Green Langton Green is a village in the borough of Tunbridge Wells, England, lying around two miles west of the town centre along the A264. It is located within the parish of Speldhurst although it has its own church on the village green—the Grade I ...

, Kent, he then attended the private

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

. He graduated in

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

. While at university, Zaltzman was sports editor for ''

The Oxford Student ''The Oxford Student'' is a newspaper produced by and for students of the University of Oxford; often abbreviated to ''The OxStu''. The paper was established in 1991 by the Oxford University Student Union (Oxford SU) and is published every for ...

''.

Career

Stand-up

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Zaltzman first performed at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

in 1999, when he was a finalist in the prestigious

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 ...

new act competition along with Josie Long,

Russell Howard Russell Joseph Howard (born 23 March 1980) is an English comedian, television presenter, radio presenter, and actor. He was known for his television show ''Russell Howard's Good News'' and is currently doing ''The Russell Howard Hour'', and his ...

, and

David O'Doherty David Nicholas O'Doherty (; born 18 December 1975) is an Irish comedian, author, musician, actor and playwright and son of renowned jazz pianist Jim Doherty. His stand-up has won many international awards including the if.comedy award in 2008 a ...

. His debut full-length Edinburgh Fringe show ''Andy Zaltzman versus the Dog of Doom'' received a nomination for Best Newcomer at the

Perrier Comedy Award The Dave's 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. ...

s in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, Zaltzman began – initially with John Oliver – hosting '' Political Animal'', a stand-up show in which different acts perform political-themed material; Zaltzman has hosted solo since

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. ''Political Animal'' later transferred to

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. Zaltzman also appeared in a late-night show with fellow stand-ups

Daniel Kitson Daniel John Kitson (born 2 July 1977) is an English comedian and writer. Early life Daniel John Kitson was born in Denby Dale on 2 July 1977, the son of a primary school headteacher mother and a lecturer father. He was a pupil at Scissett Midd ...

, and

Alun Cochrane Alun Cochrane (born 8 February 1975) is a Scottish comedian. He was born in Glasgow and raised in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Career Stand-up comedy In 2004 Cochrane's first Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, ''My Favourite Words in My Best ...

entitled ''The Honourable Men of Art'', at

The Stand ''The Stand'' is a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel written by American author Stephen King and first published in 1978 by Doubleday. The plot centers on a deadly pandemic of weaponized influenza and its aftermath, in which the few survivin ...

in 2006 and 2008.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Zaltzman performed at the

Melbourne International Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typicall ...

for the first time in April 2007, winning the coveted '' Piece of Wood Award'', given to the best show as voted for by other comedians.

Other stand-up

In 2011, Zaltzman appeared as a guest stand-up comic on ''

Russell Howard's Good News ''Russell Howard's Good News'' was a British comedy and topical news television show which was broadcast on BBC Three between 2009 and 2014, and on BBC Two between 2014 and 2015. Hosted by comedian Russell Howard, it offered his commentary on ...

Extra''. In 2013 he also contributed a review of that year's World Snooker Championship to BBC Television's regular coverage of the event. Since mid-2014, Zaltzman has toured ''Satirist for Hire'', where questions and comments are solicited from potential or confirmed audiences (usually via email or social media) before performing at venues, giving parts of the show a constantly evolving order and structure. In December, 2014, Zaltzman performed at the Lord’s Taverners charity Christmas lunch.

Radio, podcast and TV

''The Department''

Zaltzman and John Oliver gained their first big break when they teamed up with the multi-

Perrier Award Perrier ( , also , ) is a French brand of natural bottled mineral water obtained at its source in Vergèze, located in the Gard ''département''. Perrier is known for its carbonation and its distinctive green bottle. Perrier was part of the ...

nominated

Chris Addison Christopher David Addison (born 5 November 1971) is a British comedian, writer, actor, and director. He is perhaps best known for his role as a regular panellist on ''Mock the Week''. He is also known for his lecture-style comedy shows, two of ...

on ''The Department'', a short-running radio show based on the premise that Chris, Andy and John, were a three-man organisation brainstorming to solve society's problems.

''The Bugle''

Zaltzman has co-hosted ''The Bugle'', a weekly

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

comedy

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 ...

, since 2007. From October 2007 until June 2016, the podcast was hosted by Zaltzman with

. In June 2016, Oliver left the show due to other commitments. The show was officially re-launched on 24 October 2016. Producer Chris Skinner remained on the show along with Zaltzman and a rotating group of co-hosts. The first set of new co-hosts included

Wyatt Cenac Wyatt John Foster Cenac Jr. (; born April 19, 1976) is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. He was a correspondent and writer for ''The Daily Show'' from 2008 to 2012. He starred in the TBS series ''People of Earth'' and in Barry ...

(US),

Hari Kondabolu Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu (born October 21, 1982)Beem, p. 38 is an American stand-up comic. His comedy covers subjects such as race, inequity, and Indian stereotypes. He was a writer for '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' and the creator of ...

(US),

Tiff Stevenson Tiffany Stevenson (born 29 September 1978) is an English stand-up comedian, writer and actress. Career Stevenson started her career as an actress. Her credits include ''The Office'', '' Days That Shook the World'', ''People Just Do Nothing'' an ...

(UK),

Nish Kumar Nishant Kumar (born 1985) is a British stand-up comedian and television presenter. He became known as the host of satirical comedy ''The Mash Report'', now known as ''Late Night Mash''. He has also presented BBC Radio 4 Extra's topical comedy ...

(UK), Alice Fraser (Australia), Anuvab Pal (India),

Tom Ballard Thomas Colin Ballard (born 26 November 1989) is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter. Early life Ballard was born to parents Judy and Neil Ballard and grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria. He attended Brauer Secondary Colle ...

(Australia), and

(UK). ''The Bugle'' was hosted by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' until December 2011 and the podcast has since been independent, relying upon listeners' contributions to continue. In 2016 the podcast relaunched and became a member of the

Radiotopia Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by ''99% Invisible'' host Roman Mars and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their work. P ...

podcast network. In December 2018, it was announced ''The Bugle'' would be leaving

Other radio, podcast and TV

In July 2009, Zaltzman hosted a Saturday morning show on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

entitled ''Yes, It's The Ashes'', taking a comic look at the 2009 Ashes. Zaltzman presented his own four-part

programme in December 2009 entitled ''Andy Zaltzman's History of the Third Millennium, Series 1 of 100''. Also featuring Rory Bremner and Bridget Christie, the show contained stand-up and sketches focusing on the last 10 years. Zaltzman was a regular co-host, along with comedians

Al Murray Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gre ...

and

Rebecca Front Rebecca Louise Front (born 16 May 1964) is an English actress, writer and comedian. She won the 2010 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for ''The Thick of It'' (2009–2012).Jennifer Lipma"Bafta for Jewish actress Rebecca Front" ...

of the satirical news programme ''

7 Day Sunday ''7 Day Sunday'' (''7 Day Saturday'' in 2013) is a British comedy radio talk show hosted by Al Murray on BBC Radio 5 Live. Broadcast weekly on Sunday mornings, the show takes an irreverent look at the topical news stories of the past seven days ...

(also broadcast as 7 Day Saturday)''. The show had been running on

since starting in January 2010. Zaltzman is also an occasional guest on the online cricket radio commentary station '' Test match Sofa'' and on TalkSPORT's cricket show ''Howzat''. More recently he has appeared on Test Match Sofa's successo
www.guerillacricket.com
and was an occasional member of the team when they broadcast the programme from a central London sports bar for the 2015 Ashes. He has appeared on ''

The Weekly with Charlie Pickering ''The Weekly with Charlie Pickering'' is an Australian news satire series on the ABC. The series premiered on 22 April 2015, featuring Charlie Pickering as host with Tom Gleeson, Adam Briggs and Judith Lucy in the cast who joined the show i ...

'' on

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

in Australia since 2015. In 2016 Zaltzman became the scorer for ''

'' on

on the Sri Lankan tour of England. From 10 June 2016, he hosted ''Zaltzman's Summer of Sport'' podcast published by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. From 17 November 2017, he co-hosted ''The Urnbelievable Ashes'' with

Felicity Ward Felicity Ward (born 26 September 1980) is an Australian comedian, best known for her TV appearances on '' Spicks and Specks'', ''Thank God You're Here'', ''Good News Week'' and as a writer/performer in the Channel 10 Network television program ...

, a podcast published by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

. In 2017 he wrote and performed a three-part series on ancient philosophy including

Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century Common Era, BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asser ...

Epicureanism Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism. Later its main opponent became Stoicism. Few writings by Epi ...

and

Cynicism Cynic or Cynicism may refer to: Modes of thought * Cynicism (philosophy), a school of ancient Greek philosophy * Cynicism (contemporary), modern use of the word for distrust of others' motives Books * ''The Cynic'', James Gordon Stuart Grant 1 ...

for

. In 2018, along with comedian and occasional ''The Bugle'' co-host Anuvab Pal, he wrote and performed in ''Empire-ical Evidence'' a look at the rise and fall of the British Empire produced for

. Having hosted one of three series of ''

'', sharing duties with

Angela Barnes Angela Barnes (born 9 November 1976) is an English stand-up comedian, mostly known for her appearances on ''Mock the Week''. Early life Barnes was born in Sidcup, London and brought up in Maidstone, Kent. She went to Invicta Grammar School t ...

and

in 2020 Andy Zaltzman has been the permanent chair since 2021.

Writing

Zaltzman has worked with

Rory Bremner Roderick Keith Ogilvy "Rory" Bremner,"Rory Bremner". '' Who Do You Think You Are?''. Wall to Wall for BBC One. 2 February 2009. No. 1, series 6. (born 6 April 1961) is a Scottish impressionist and comedian, noted for his work in political sati ...

on a number of projects, these include ''Transatlantic'', a US election special for

and several series of ''

Bremner, Bird and Fortune ''Bremner, Bird and Fortune'' is a satirical British television programme produced by Vera Productions for Channel Four, uniting the longstanding satirical team of John Bird and John Fortune ("the Two Johns") with the satirical impressionist Ror ...

''. In June 2007,

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's ''

The Culture Show ''The Culture Show'' is a British magazine programme about books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts. The show was broadcast weekly on BBC Two between 2004 and 2015. Early history Launched in November 2004, th ...

'' commissioned Zaltzman and John Oliver to write a mock farewell speech for departing Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

. The speech was then animated by Triffic Films, with the voice of Blair played by Bremner. In November 2008, his first book, entitled ''Does Anything Eat Bankers?: And 53 Other Indispensable Questions for the Credit Crunched'', was published.

Video games

Zaltzman played the host of The Bug podcast in 2020's Watch Dogs: Legion, alongside his Bugle co-host Alice Fraser - the show is highly satirical and takes direct inspiration from The Bugle in its approach and delivery.

Cricket

Zaltzman is a huge fan of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and in November 2008 began a regular blog for

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, named "The Confectionery Stall" after a famous piece of commentary by

Richie Benaud Richard Benaud (; 6 October 1930 – 10 April 2015) was an Australian cricketer who, after his retirement from international cricket in 1964, became a highly regarded commentator on the game. Benaud was a Test cricket all-rounder, blending l ...

, where he described a shot by

Ian Botham Ian Terence Botham, Baron Botham, (born 24 November 1955) is an English cricket commentator, member of the House of Lords, a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser. Hailed as one ...

during his innings at the third Ashes Test Match at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingle ...

, in 1981 as having "gone straight into the Confectionery Stall and out again". Alongside Jarrod Kimber, he hosts a podcast on cricket known as ''The Cricket Sadist Hour''. Zaltzman's blog covered the 2011 World Cup for Cricinfo, supported by a number of podcasts. Zaltzman has also appeared on the internet radio site Guerilla Cricket, and has played for the Authors XI cricket team. Zaltzman was the statistician on

for the three-match

Wisden Trophy The Wisden Trophy was awarded to the winner of the Test cricket series played between England and the West Indies. It was first awarded in 1963 to commemorate the hundredth edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Series were played in accordanc ...

series between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

in July 2020 and between

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

a month later.

Personal life

Zaltzman's wife is a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and they have two children, a daughter born January 2007 and a son born December 2008. Zaltzman

delivered ''Delivered'' is a 1998 thriller/crime film directed by Guy Ferland. A pizza boy finds a murdered man at his next delivery and becomes the murderer's next intended victim. External links * * 1998 films 1998 crime thriller films 1998 comed ...

his son at home due to his wife entering

labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

suddenly. His sister

is a comedian and podcaster.

Works

* ''Does Anything Eat Bankers?: And 53 Other Indispensable Questions for the Credit Crunched.'' Old Street Publishing, 2008.

References

External links

Official siteAndy Zaltzman on Chortle
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zaltzman, Andy 1974 births People educated at Tonbridge School Living people Alumni of University College, Oxford British stand-up comedians Jewish British comedians People from Hammersmith English podcasters 21st-century British comedians Cricket statisticians