The nominations are:

 

 

Nica Burns CBE, Director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said: “2024 is an outstanding year for comedy with our shortlist ranging from clowning to character comedy to musical comedy and traditional stand-up. For the first time ever, we have a Best Comedy Show shortlist where male-identifying comedians are in the minority with representation across gender and sexuality spectrums, and comedians from the Midlands and North of England lead the list, alongside comedians from Australia, Ireland and America. The nominees are united by an ability to create jokes out of every situation, combining some serious insights with a high laugh rate. This year’s focus is on personal experience rather than political issues.”  

 

Nana Hughes, Chair of the judging panel, said: “With 563 shows to review, our panel and scouts team – the latter all former panelists - have collectively watched over 1,500 hours of comedy in three weeks to get to our shortlists. The process is thorough and rightfully so when the Edinburgh Comedy Awards can have such an impact on comedians’ careers. The Best Newcomer shortlist is extraordinary and reflects the diversity and talent of emerging comedians. It is incredibly exciting to be able to see the next stars of tomorrow, with one of them graduating to stand up from TikTok. The future of comedy is bright.”

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The 42nd Edinburgh Comedy Awards ceremony, presented by Richard Osman and Ahir Shah will take place at 11:00am on Saturday 24 August 2024 at Ghillie Dhu, 2 Rutland Place, Edinburgh EH1 2AD when the final winners are announced.

 

Now in their 42nd year, ‘the Oscars of Comedy’ will spotlight the next generation of comedic talent. The Edinburgh Comedy Awards continue to be the hallmark of comedy excellence and potential, with previous winners and nominees having 3088 screen credits between them. 

 

Joining Nica Burns CBE, the long serving Awards Director, in sponsoring the Awards and returning from last year, are Donald Taffner, Jr. of DLT Entertainment and The Victoria Wood Foundation. Donald, alongside Nica, continues a long-running commitment to supporting live comedy by continuing to sponsor the DLT Entertainment Best Newcomer Award and, in honour of his parents, is also sponsoring the Donald and Eleanor Taffner Best Comedy Show. 

 

The ‘spirit of the fringe’ panel prize, which was popularly renamed The Victoria Wood Award, celebrates a much-loved comedy genius and continues to be sponsored by The Victoria Wood Foundation.

 

The Judging Panel is a mix of industry experts and comedy fans from the general public who are selected from an open application process. They are:

 

Nana Hughes: Head of Scripted Comedy at ITV

 

Dominic Cavendish: Theatre Critic at The Daily Telegraph

 

Liz Daramola: Creator in Residence at Baby Cow Productions

 

Georgia Keating: Producer at BBC Studios Comedy & Entertainment

 

Dominic Maxwell: Comedy & Theatre Critic for The Times and The Sunday Times

 

Anya Ryan Comedy & Theatre Critic at The Guardian, The Times, Time Out, The Stage

 

Darren Smith: Creative Director at DLT Entertainment Ltd

 

Sam Anderson: Public panellist

 

Jake Helliwell: Public panellist

 

Beth Moon: Public panellist

 

Past winners have amassed 528 television writing credits, 44 directing credits and over 1,500 acting credits, and nominees have 534 writing credits, 72 directing credits and over 1,200 acting credits on screen. Best Newcomer nominee Alex Horne created the BAFTA award-winning TV series Taskmaster, which has had appearances from 36 winners and nominees across its 18 series.

 

Responsible for launching the careers of the UK’s comedy elite, previous award winners include Stephen Fry, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans, Al Murray, Sarah Millican, Omid Djalili, Eddie Izzard, Tim Minchin, The League of Gentlemen, Jenny Eclair and Frank Skinner. Founded in 1981, many award winners and nominees have gone on to have a significant impact on mainstream popular culture, going on to write, direct and act on screen, in some of the most iconic television and film over the last four decades - including Green Wing and Smack The Pony (Victoria Pile), Sherlock (Mark Gatiss), Alan Partridge and Philomena (Steve Coogan), Car Share (Peter Kay), The IT Crowd (Richard Ayoade), Benidorm and No.9 (Steve Pemberton), Doctor Who and her eponymous TV show (Catherine Tate), W1A (Sara Pascoe), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Romesh

Ranganathan), Sex Education (Hannah Gadsby), Baby Reindeer (Richard Gadd) and Starstruck (Rose Matafeo).