Richard Osman
Richard Osman | |
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![]() Osman in 2019 | |
Born | Richard Thomas Osman 28 November 1970 Billericay, Essex, England |
Education | Warden Park School |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Occupation | Comedian • producer • television presenter • writer |
Years active | 1993–present |
Known for | |
Height | 2.0 m (6 ft 7 in) |
Children | Ruby Osman & Sonny Osman |
Relatives | Mat Osman (brother) |
Richard Thomas Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English comedian, producer, television presenter, writer, and the creator and co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show Pointless.[1] He has also presented the BBC Two quiz shows Two Tribes and Richard Osman's House of Games and has been a team captain on the comedy panel shows Insert Name Here and The Fake News Show. He has gained recognition for his appearances on many British panel shows.
Osman worked at Hat Trick Productions alongside Ben Smith before becoming creative director of the television production company Endemol UK, producing shows including Prize Island for ITV and Deal or No Deal for Channel 4. He is the writer of the 2020 novel The Thursday Murder Club.
Early life[]
Osman was born in Billericay, Essex, to Brenda Wright and David Osman and grew up in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. His mother is a teacher. When Osman was nine years old, his father walked out on the family, which Osman says has created difficulty for the rest of his life.[2] His elder brother is musician Mat Osman, bass guitarist with the rock band Suede.[3]
Osman attended Warden Park School in Cuckfield. Whilst still at school he gained his first broadcasting experience, as a regular contributor to Turn It Up, an open-access music show which went out on Sunday evenings on BBC Radio Sussex (the show was also notable for giving early broadcast experience to BBC news journalist Jane Hill and radio DJ Jo Whiley). From 1989 to 1992, he studied Politics and Sociology at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a contemporary of Pointless co-presenter Alexander Armstrong, who read English.[4][5]
Television career[]
Production[]
Osman began his career working as executive producer on British game shows, including Deal or No Deal, Channel 4 comedy panel game 8 out of 10 Cats and satirical comedy 10 O'Clock Live. He was the creative director at TV company Endemol, pitching the idea for Pointless to the BBC, becoming its co-presenter with his former university friend, Alexander Armstrong, when it launched in 2009.
He created the short-lived 2013 ITV gameshow Prize Island.[6] His other credits include Whose Line is it Anyway?, Total Wipeout and the game show 24 Hour Quiz. As a producer of Deal or No Deal, Osman was the one who revealed the identity of The Banker to be the show's producer Glenn Hugill.
Osman acted as script editor for BBC One's Total Wipeout and in 1999, created and wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Boyz Unlimited with David Walliams and Matt Lucas. In 2005, he co-created and co-wrote the animated Channel 4 sitcom Bromwell High.[7][8][9]
Osman left Endemol in 2020.[10]
Presenting and Pointless[]
Since 2009, Osman has co-presented the BBC One teatime quiz show Pointless with host Alexander Armstrong. He created the show where he is jokingly known as Armstrong's "pointless friend". Having previously worked exclusively in behind-the-camera roles, Osman got the job as co-presenter/assistant when he pitched the idea for the show to a panel of BBC daytime heads, taking the role of the assistant in the demonstration.[11][12]
Osman guest hosted Have I Got News for You in October 2013.[12][13] In 2014, Osman began presenting a new BBC Two quiz show called Two Tribes. A second series began airing in February 2015.[14] From October 2014, he guest-presented numerous episodes of The One Show. Beginning in 2016, he was a team captain on the BBC Two comedy panel show Insert Name Here, hosted by Sue Perkins. A second series was commissioned to begin airing in January 2017.
In February and December 2016, he presented Dragons' Den: Pitches to Riches, two special episodes which looked back over the past thirteen series of Dragons' Den on BBC Two. Since 2016, Osman has presented Child Genius on Channel 4.[15] He appeared on the telethon Red Nose Day 2017 with The World Cup of Biscuits 2017. This involved polling with Twitter to find the best British biscuit. In April 2017 he appeared in the first episode of the third series of Murder in Successville.
In 2017, Osman began hosting his show Richard Osman's House of Games. Each weekday, four panellists compete in general knowledge tests in a variety of entertaining games. Four series of the show have been made. In 2020, Osman created a spinoff show titled House of Games Night, which aired on BBC One on Friday nights.
Comedy[]
Osman has appeared multiple times on several panel shows; Would I Lie to You?, Have I Got News for You, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, QI, and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
In 2016 he was a contestant on the second series of Taskmaster and appeared on the darts show Let's Play Darts.
Literary career[]
Viking Press, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, acquired the rights to Osman's debut novel, The Thursday Murder Club, and one other novel, for a seven-figure sum in a 10-publisher auction in 2019. It was said that his first book would be published in autumn 2020, and the second the following year, as part of a classic crime series.[16] His debut crime novel's release date was announced as 3 September 2020.[17]
The Thursday Murder Club is set in a luxury retirement village in Kent where four residents gather to investigate crime cases, including a "live" murder mystery. Osman said that he was "in talks" for a TV adaptation of his novel.[18] Osman confirmed that Steven Spielberg had acquired the book's film rights.[19] The book has sold well over 1 million copies in the UK and sold 45,000 UK hardback copies in the first 3 days after publication. [20]
Osman's second crime novel, The Man Who Died Twice, was published in 2021. Reviewing the book for The Sunday Times, the journalist and crime writer Joan Smith wrote: "[He] does not take murder seriously, dispatching characters with careless abandon, and both novels lack the underlying moral seriousness that is an essential ingredient of the best crime fiction."[21]
Other work[]
Osman presented The Birthday Game podcast.[22] Since 2021 he has featured in podcast adverts for premium ready meal brand Charlie Bigham's.[23]
Personal life[]
Osman was born with nystagmus, an eye condition that significantly reduces his vision.[24] He learns his scripts by heart as his condition makes it difficult to read an autocue.[25]
Osman has two children, Ruby and Sonny, aged 17 and 19 years as of 2020.[26]
As of 2020, Osman resides in a bachelor pad in Chiswick, West London.[27]
Osman is a season ticket holder at Fulham F.C.[28]
On 6 December 2011, Osman became an "unlikely heartthrob" after winning Heat's "Weirdest Crush Award".[29]
Television work[]
Production credits[]
Year | Title | Role | Channel | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | Whose Line Is It Anyway? | Programme associate | Channel 4 | 12 episodes |
1998–1999 | If I Ruled the World | Creator, producer | BBC Two | 2 series |
1999 | Boyz Unlimited | Co-creator (with David Walliams and Matt Lucas) | Channel 4 | 6 episodes |
2001 | The Adam and Joe Show | Additional material | 3 episodes | |
2004 | Ban This Filth | Executive producer | 6 episodes | |
2005 | Bromwell High | Writer | 12 episodes | |
2005–2017 | 8 Out of 10 Cats | Executive producer (41 episodes) Edit producer (1 episode) |
42 episodes | |
2009–2010 | You Have Been Watching | Executive producer | 15 episodes | |
2009–2011 | Total Wipeout | Script editor (36 episodes) Programme associate (9 episodes) |
BBC One | 45 episodes |
2010 | Channel 4's Alternative Election Night | Executive producer | Channel 4 | One-off programme |
2011–2013 | 10 O'Clock Live | 33 episodes | ||
2012–2018 | 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown | 16 series | ||
2013 | Prize Island | Creator | ITV | 1 series |
2014–2016 | Only Connect | Additional questions | BBC Two | 5 episodes |
Presenting roles[]
Year | Title | Role | Channel | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009– | Pointless | Co-presenter | BBC One (2011– ) BBC Two (2009–11) |
22 series |
2011– | Pointless Celebrities | BBC One | 12 series | |
2014– | The One Show | Guest presenter | 7 episodes | |
2014–2015 | Two Tribes | Presenter | BBC Two | 2 series |
2016 | Dragons' Den: Pitches to Riches | 2 episodes | ||
2016– | Child Genius | Channel 4 | Series 4– | |
2017 | The Nightly Show | Celebrity host | ITV | 1 episode |
Channel 4's Alternative Election Night | Co-presenter | Channel 4 | One-off programme | |
2017– | Richard Osman's House of Games | Presenter | BBC Two | 4 series |
2018 | Re-Play 2018 with Richard Osman | ITV | One-off programme | |
2020 | Richard Osman's House of Games Night[30] | BBC One | 1 series |
Non-presenting appearances[]
Year | Title | Role | Channel | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012–2016 | Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two | Panellist | BBC Two | 3 episodes |
2012–2019 | Have I Got News for You | Guest panellist | BBC One | Numerous episodes |
Would I Lie to You? | Guest | 7 episodes | ||
2013 | The Big Fat Quiz of the Year | Himself | Channel 4 | TV special |
2013–2017 | 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown | Contestant | 5 episodes | |
2013 | QI | Guest | BBC Two | 4 episodes |
2014 | Not Going Out | Himself/cameo role | BBC One | 1 episode: "Pointless" |
Room 101 | Guest | 1 episode | ||
2014 World Snooker Championship | Special guest (1 episode) Potless presenter (3 episodes) |
BBC Two | 4 episodes | |
2015 | 2015 World Snooker Championship | Celebrity predictions (1 episode) Celebrity player (1 episode) |
2 episodes | |
Let's Play Darts | Participant/commentator | BBC Two | Charity series | |
Danger Mouse | Professor Strontium Jellyfishowitz | CBBC | Voice only | |
Celebrity Juice | Guest | ITV2 | 3 episodes | |
8 Out of 10 Cats | Channel 4 | 1 episode | ||
2015–2017 | Loose Women | ITV | 3 episodes | |
2016 | Play to the Whistle | Himself | 1 episode | |
Duck Quacks Don't Echo | Guest | Sky One | 1 episode | |
Taskmaster | Contestant | Dave | Series 2 | |
Eurovision Song Contest 2016 | UK spokesperson | BBC One, EBU | Annual programme | |
2016–2020 | The Last Leg | Guest | Channel 4 | 6 episodes |
2016– | Insert Name Here | Team captain | BBC Two | 3 series |
2017 | The Fake News Show | Channel 4 | 1 series | |
Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit | Contestant | Dave | 1 episode | |
2017–2020 | Sunday Brunch | Guest | Channel 4 | 2 episodes |
2018 | Frankie Boyle's New World Order | Guest | BBC Two | 1 episode |
2019 | Catchphrase | Celebrity contestant | ITV | 1 episode |
The Ranganation | Guest | BBC Two | 1 episode | |
Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier | Himself | Dave | 1 episode | |
2020 | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? | Celebrity contestant | ITV | 1 episode |
The Graham Norton Show | Himself | BBC One | 1 episode | |
Saturday Kitchen Live | Guest | BBC One | 1 episode |
Bibliography[]
- Osman, Richard; Armstrong, Alexander (2012). The 100 Most Pointless Things in the World. Coronet. ISBN 978-1-4447-6205-1.
- Osman, Richard; Armstrong, Alexander (2013). The 100 Most Pointless Arguments in the World. Coronet. ISBN 978-1-4447-6208-2.
- Osman, Richard; Armstrong, Alexander (2014). The Very Pointless Quiz Book. Coronet. ISBN 978-1-4447-8274-5.
- Osman, Richard; Armstrong, Alexander (2015). The A-Z of Pointless. Coronet. ISBN 978-1-4447-8277-6.
- Osman, Richard; Armstrong, Alexander (2016). A Pointless History of the World. Coronet. ISBN 978-1-4736-2324-8.
- Osman, Richard (2017). The World Cup Of Everything: Bringing the Fun Home. Coronet. ISBN 978-1-4736-6726-6.
- Osman, Richard; Connor, Alan (2019). Richard Osman's House of Games. BBC Books. ISBN 978-1-78594-462-8.
Novels[]
- Osman, Richard (2020). The Thursday Murder Club. Viking. ISBN 978-0-241-42544-2.
References[]
- ^ "Endemol UK – Pointless". Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ McPhee, Rod (13 August 2014). "Pointless star Richard Osman reveals childhood agony that haunted him for decades". mirror. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
- ^ Dessau, Bruce (2 March 2013). "10 Questions for Suede's Brett Anderson & Mat Osman". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
- ^ Gilbert, Gerard (10 March 2012). "Pedigree chum: Is Alexander Armstrong the poshest man in comedy?". The Independent. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- ^ "Richard Osman: Alexander Armstrong is cleverer than me but he's a bit posh". Metro. 23 October 2012.
- ^ Eames, Tom (25 June 2013). "Emma Willis show 'Prize Island' to be axed by ITV?". Digital Spy. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- ^ "'Total Wipeout' (2009) Overview". IMDb. 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- ^ "Boyz Unlimited (TV Series 1999–) Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- ^ "Bromwell High (TV Series 2005–)". IMDb. 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- ^ Osman, Richard [@richardosman] (21 December 2020). "I've worked at Endemol since I was 29, but it's time for me to move on. Will still be doing Pointless/House Of Games & working with brilliant people there. But also looking forward to creating new shows with new people. It's been a wonderful 20 years, and I will miss it very much" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Meltzer, Tom (4 June 2013). "Pointless: Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman on TV's favourite quiz". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Osman, Richard (6 July 2011). "Pointless: How I became the co-host". BBC.
- ^ "BBC Daytime re-commissions Pointless". BBC Press Office. 6 October 2009. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- ^ Wightman, Catriona (23 April 2014). "Pointless star Richard Osman to host new BBC quiz show Two Tribes". Digital Spy. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- ^ Sam Warner (1 March 2016). "Richard Osman is hosting the new series of Channel 4's Child Genius". Digital Spy.
- ^ "Richard Osman's fiction debut scooped by Viking for seven figures in 10-way auction | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ Thomas, Rebecca (27 August 2020). "Richard Osman: 'I wish I were cooler but I'm not'". BBC News. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
- ^ Barnett, David (23 May 2019). "Richard Osman lands 'seven-figure' deal for crime novel written in secret". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
- ^ McLennan, Patrick (27 August 2020). "Pointless star Richard Osman says Steven Spielberg is making a film of his Thursday Murder Club novel". Radio Times. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
- ^ https://twitter.com/BestsellerAwrds/status/1372243836207005712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1372243836207005712%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mushens-entertainment.com%2Fnews%2Fthe-thursday-murder-club-is-a-platinum-bestseller
- ^ Smith, Joan (29 August 2021). "The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman review — is he a one-trick pony?". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 29 August 2021. (subscription required)
- ^ Osman, Richard [@richardosman] (2 September 2019). "'The Birthday Game' is now available wherever you get your podcasts! It's a funny, very silly podcast that everybody can play along with. New episode every Monday. This week's players are @rickedwards1 @phlaimeaux and @MaisieAdam" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "Charlie Bigham's launches £3m multimedia spring ad campaign". betterRetailing. 13 April 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
- ^ Osman, Richard (11 October 2013). "And for anyone asking, I promise I wasn't shaking. I have a condition called nystagmus which makes my eyes constantly flicker". @richardosman. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ "Richard Osman reveals the secrets of Pointless". Radio Times. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
- ^ BBC Radio 5 live afternoon show 12 June 2020
- ^ "Richard Osman: "We are obsessed with young people"". 8 September 2020.
- ^ Lawrenson, Mark (17 March 2013). "Mark Lawrenson's Premier League predictions". BBC Sport. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- ^ "'Pointless' Co-Presenter Richard Osman Named 2011's Top Weird Crush". HuffPost. 6 December 2011.
- ^ "Richard Osman's House of Games Night, Series 1, Episode 1". BBC.
External links[]
- 1970 births
- Living people
- Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
- BBC television presenters
- Endemol
- English game show hosts
- English television producers
- People educated at Warden Park School
- People from Billericay