Rich Hall

About

Rich is a popular American comedian, writer and presenter. He has appeared on a number of popular shows in both America and the UK. His first professional work was as a writer and performer on the American sketch comedy TV series Fridays from 1980 until 1982.

Hall co-wrote and starred in the satirical comedy series Not Necessarily the News from 1983 until 1990.

In 1986, he had his own Showtime channel special, Vanishing America, which was turned into a book with the same title. He hosted a talk show during The Comedy Channel’s 1990-91 season, titled Rich Hall’s Onion World.

Rich has also made appearances in 8 Out of 10 Cats, Have I Got News for You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He has also appeared on the British stand-up comedy series Jack Dee’s Live at the Apollo.

In the United States, he has appeared several times on American talk shows such as Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

In 2000, he won the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, in the guise of his own grizzled uncle, Otis Lee Crenshaw, the much-convicted country music singer. He has released several albums and a concert movie as this character. And in 2004, he published a book of the man’s memoirs, entitled Otis Lee Crenshaw: I Blame Society,

Hall has had four BBC TV series of his own: Rich Hall’s Badly Funded Think Tank, Rich Hall’s Fishing Show in 2003, Rich Hall’s Cattle Drive in 2006, as well as a one-off programme about the 2004 American Presidential Elections, Rich Hall’s Election Special.

In 2009, he performed at the Edinburgh Festival in two shows, his solo stand up and also with long time collaborator Mike Wilmot and Montana-based actor Tim Williams in a new play entitled “Campfire Stories”.

Hall has written and presented three 90-minute documentaries about film genres, broadcast on BBC Four. Rich Hall’s How the West Was Lost (first broadcast June 2008) discusses Westerns, Rich Hall’s The Dirty South (October 2010) challenges stereotypical Hollywood presentations of the Southern United States, and Rich Hall’s Continental Drifters (November 2011) examines the American road movie.

On April 5, 2010, Hall appeared as one of the stand-up acts on Channel 4’s Comedy Gala, a benefit show organised by Channel 4 to raise money for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

Hall is a guest on popular BBC panel quiz shows, most notably as a regular guest on QI, for which he has received much critical acclaim and is known as the game’s most frequently victorious guest panellist with seven victories.

Matt Groening has described him as the inspiration for Moe Szyslak from The Simpsons.

Hall is also a regular performer on Channel 4’s Stand Up for the Week, which began in June 2010.