The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – Creative Arts: Comedy

Mo Gilligan
Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd
Bruce Dessau3 October 2019

Mo Gilligan

Comedian and Instagrammer
The South Londoner’s character-based insta posts enabled him to give up his day job selling trousers in Covent Garden and he is now becoming a household name with his very own C4 show.

Tom Davis

Actor & comedian | NEW
The born-and-bred Londoner had a cult hit fronting improvised BBC whodunnit Murder In Successville and is now set to go mainstream with his new ducking-and-diving primetime sitcom King Gary.

James Acaster

METRO

Comedian | NEW
The finest stand-up never to win the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award, Acaster was shortlisted five times, but is having the last laugh with a career now gathering universal acclaim.

Rosie Jones

Comedian | NEW
Jones, who has cerebral palsy, is a marvellously mischievous, cheeky performer. After winning plaudits for her debut solo show in which she also came out, TV producers now have her number on speed dial.

Jack Whitehall

Comedian and actor
There is no stopping 31-year-old Whitehall, born in Marylebone, whose work with and without his irascible father Michael has seen him become a huge star. He is now returning to the stand-up that started it all with one of the UK’s biggest arena comedy tours kicking off in November.

Cariad Lloyd

Comedian and podcaster | NEW
The death of Lloyd’s father when she was a teenager inspired her to launch her pioneering and award-winning podcast Griefcast, in which stars such as Robert Webb and sports presenter Simon Thomas have talked frankly about personal loss. The Barnet-born comedian once worked as a tour guide on open-top London buses.

Sara Pascoe

Comedian and writer
The Live at the Apollo star is a TV regular and also a successful writer. Her latest book, Sex Power Money, is set to follow Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body as essential reading for all thoroughly modern feminists.

Aisling Bea

Comedian, actor and writer | NEW
Irish-born star Bea is currently dividing her time between London and Los Angeles with TV projects on the go on both sides of the Atlantic, most recently her own C4 vehicle This Way Up.

David Baddiel

Comedian and writer
The veteran intellectual lad and passionate Chelsea supporter shows no sign of easing off. This autumn sees the Soho Theatre staging his debut play God’s Dice, starring Alan Davies, while 2020 sees him debuting his new stand-up show in which he takes on internet trolls.

Lolly Adefope

Comedian and actor
In-demand Londoner Adefope has already made a splash on both sides of the Atlantic in 2019, in US comedy Shrill and as reporter Ruth Duggan in This Time With Alan Partridge and as Kitty in Ghosts, which is set to return in 2020.

Sharon Horgan

Comedian | NEW
The BAFTA award-winning comedy that she has co-written since 2015 may be called: Catastrophe, but in recent years her career has been anything but. Now starring in her friend Aisling Bea’s new show This Way Up.

Roisin Conaty

Comedian | NEW
Conaty built her reputation as one of the funniest women on British telly after her appearances on entertainment shows like 8 Out of 10 Cats does Countdown. GameFace, the sitcom which she writes and stars in, has been a fan-favourite since it aired on E4 in late 2017. Winner of the best Newcomer award at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards in 2010.

Romesh Ranganathan

Comedian | NEW
Ranganathan has quickly become Britain’s favourite grumpy comedian. His new book, Straight Outta Crawley, tells how his childhood messed him up ‘just enough to make me a comedian.’

The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better. #Progress1000

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in