This weekend on Michael McIntyre's 'The Wheel' comedian and TV host Darren Harriott helped contestant Jonathan from Surrey secure the biggest ever prize on the TV show with a win of £116,000 on Saturday Night.
With a nail-biting end, Darren, who sat at the bottom of the expert leader board was adamant he knew the answer to the final question ‘What does the F stand for when referring to the digital assets called NFTS?’. Finally, persuaded by his confidence, Jonathan decided to take the risk and over 6 million viewers watched it pay off - literally, ensuring TV gold in the process. .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001fq8z/michael-mcintyres-the-wheel-series-3-episode-6
TV’s rising star, and award-nominated comedian, Darren Harriott joins prime time ITV show Dancing on Ice next January. The Love Island Aftersun co-host has come a very long way since his early days growing up in the Black Country and now with a plethora of other TV shows yet to be announced, this young man is set to go stratospheric!
After his father took his own life in prison Darren joined a local gang, ‘Terror Klan Killerz’ (the ‘Z’ was very important to them). It all started innocently enough - they wanted their own T-shirts, branding and sense of belonging. But over time they started carrying knives and one night the other members turned on Darren, beating him so badly he woke up in hospital on New Year’s Eve and knew it was time to get out. He went to college and started doing stand-up comedy, supporting himself by working as a bouncer – not always the most exciting work, often directing traffic in a hi-vis jacket or standing outside Primark. He clearly made his mark, though, as when he was first booked for Live at the Apollo the head of security at the iconic Hammersmith venue thought he’d got his shifts mixed up.
That same year (2017) Darren was nominated for Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He went on to be the first black British male ever to be nominated for the Best Show Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019.
Darren was the face of the West Midlands Tourist Board to mark the city hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
On joining Dancing on Ice Darren says: “I love dancing! I started to take Latin classes coming out of lockdown - I still move like a fridge on the dancefloor, but it’s been great for my mental health, so doing it on ice is a fantastic new challenge. The only problem is I’ve got size 14 feet and they still haven’t found a pair of skates big enough, so at this rate I may be dancing in my socks! My family are already making bets that I’ll fall on the first episode.”
He is a team captain on Guessable, which is currently filming its 4th series, is a series regular on The Outsiders season 2 for Dave hosted by David Mitchell (out this November) and is co-host of Love Island: Aftersun. He returns to Don’t Hate the Playaz later this year. Other TV includes Britain’s Best Takeaway with Sara Cox, British as Folk, host of Live at the Apollo and Dog Ate My Homework, plus appearances on Backstage With Katherine Ryan, All Star Games for Comic Relief and Great British Bake Off Extra Slice among many others.
Darren has two BBC Radio 4 series Black Label, which covered his time as a teenager in gangs, giving a very personal, vulnerable account of being in and around that world at a very young age – Stephen Merchant listened to this and asked him to help on ‘The Outlaws’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0006tm8
Podcasts include Shame is Delicious (which he co-hosts with Eshaan Akbar), Obsessed With Peaky Blinders, The Adam Buxton Podcast, Evil Genius, Dave’s CALM Podcast, Griefcast, Susan Calman’s Mrs Brightside, and Wheel of Misfortune.
