John William Oliver is an English comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian, both in the United Kingdom and United States. He came to wider attention for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its senior British correspondent from 2006 to 2013. Oliver won three Primetime Emmy Awards for his work as a writer on The Daily Show and was its guest host for an eight-week period in 2013. In addition to The Daily Show, Oliver co-hosted the satirical comedy podcast The Bugle (2007–2015) with Andy Zaltzman, with whom Oliver had previously co-hosted the radio series Political Animal, and hosted John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show on Comedy Central from 2010 to 2013. He has also acted on television, most notably in a recurring role as Ian Duncan on the NBC sitcom Community, and in films noticeably voiceover work in The Smurfs (2011) and its sequel and the forthcoming remake of The Lion King.
Since 2014, Oliver has been the host of the HBO series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He has received widespread critical and popular recognition for his work on the series, whose influence over US culture, legislation, and policymaking has been dubbed the "John Oliver effect". For his work on Last Week Tonight, Oliver has won six Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards and was included in the 2015 Time 100, being described as a "comedic agent of change...powerful because he isn't afraid to tackle important issues thoughtfully, without fear or apology." Many have opined that Oliver's work is journalism or investigative journalism, a claim Oliver himself disputes.
Oliver first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001 as part of The Comedy Zone, a late-night showcase of newer acts, where he played the character of an "oleaginous journalist". At the Festival and similar venues, Oliver frequently worked with other members of the Chocolate Milk Gang, a group of comedians who often collaborated and performed with one another, including Daniel Kitson, Russell Howard, David O’Doherty, and Alun Cochrane. He performed his debut solo show in 2002 and returned in 2003. In 2004 and 2005, he collaborated with Andy Zaltzman on a double act and co-hosting Political Animal, with various acts performing political material.
After moving to New York City for The Daily Show, Oliver began performing stand-up in small clubs around the city and later headlined shows in larger venues. Oliver's first stand-up special, titled John Oliver: Terrifying Times, debuted on Comedy Central in 2008 and was later released on DVD. Since 2010, Oliver has hosted four seasons of John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show. In 2013, he went to Afghanistan on a USO tour to perform stand-up for the troops there.
According to Edward Helmore in The Guardian, "His style leans toward the kind that Americans like best from the British – exaggerated, full of odd accents and mannerisms, in the vein of Monty Python." Oliver has used his British culture as a primary subject of his jokes. Oliver describes his own accent as a "mongrel" of Brummie, Scouse, and Bedford influences.
Oliver continues to perform stand up.
Prior to joining The Daily Show, Oliver was making appearances on British television as a panellist on the satirical news quiz Mock the Week. He was a frequent guest on the first two series in 2005 and 2006, appearing in 7 out of 11 episodes.
Oliver joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its Senior British Correspondent in July 2006. He says he was interviewed for the show on the recommendation of comedian Ricky Gervais, who had never met Oliver, but was familiar with his work. It was his first time in the United States. Two weeks after the interview, he got the job, flying from London to New York on a Sunday and unexpectedly appearing on camera the next day. Oliver received Emmy Awards for outstanding writing in 2009, 2011, and 2012.
During the summer of 2013, Oliver guest-hosted The Daily Show for eight weeks while Stewart directed his movie Rosewater. Oliver's performance received positive reviews, with some critics suggesting that he should eventually succeed Stewart as host of The Daily Show or receive his own show. CBS discussed the possibility of Oliver replacing Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show. Three months after his Daily Show hosting, HBO announced it was giving Oliver his own late-night show.
From October 2007 to May 2015, Oliver co-hosted The Bugle, a weekly satirical comedy podcast, with Andy Zaltzman. Originally produced by The Times of London, it became an independent project in 2012. Its 200th episode aired on 13 July 2012. The show reached a download count of 500,000 times a month.
In 2009, Comedy Central announced that it would be ordering six episodes of the Oliver hosted John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show, a stand-up series on Comedy Central that featured sets from himself and other stand-up comedians, including Janeane Garofalo, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins and Marc Maron. Oliver executively produced the show along with Avalon Television's Richard Allen-Turner, David Martin, James Taylor and Jon Thoday. Each episode featured four comics. From 2010 to 2013, four seasons of the show were produced, the final lasting eight episodes.
Oliver began hosting Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, a late-night talk show that takes a satirical look at news, politics, and current events, on 27 April 2014. His initial two-year contract with HBO was extended through 2017 in February 2015. Oliver says he has full creative freedom, including free rein to criticise corporations, given HBO's ad-free subscription model. His work on the show led to Oliver being named on the list of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in 2015.
In 2018, Last Week Tonight was honored with a Peabody Award in the "Entertainment" category for "bringing satire and journalism even closer together," at the 77th Annual Peabody Awards.
Oliver had a recurring role on the NBC comedy Community as psychology professor Ian Duncan. However, he declined becoming a regular cast member of the series because he did not want to leave The Daily Show for it. He did not appear in the show's third and fourth seasons, but returned in season five, appearing in seven of its 13 episodes. He was not in season six which aired on Yahoo!
As a boy, Oliver played Felix Pardiggle, a minor role in the BBC drama Bleak House in 1985.
Oliver has also worked on Gravity Falls as the voice of Sherlock Holmes (season 1, episode 3), Rick and Morty as an amoeba named Dr. Xenon Bloom (season 1, episode 3), People Like Us as a bank manager (season 2, episode 5), Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja as the voice of Coach Green (season 1, episode 9), My Hero as a man from the BBC (season 2, episode 5), Green Wing as a car salesman (season 1, episode 1), and Bob's Burgers as a cat agent (season 7, episode 10).
Oliver guest starred as Booth Wilkes-John in the 25th season episode "Pay Pal", of the FOX animated television series The Simpsons.
In 2008, Oliver was given his first film role, playing Dick Pants in The Love Guru. He later voiced Vanity Smurf in The Smurfs film and its sequel. He was originally cast in 2010 to star in the Terry Jones film Absolutely Anything as Neil Clarke, but scheduling conflicts due to the debut of Last Week Tonight in 2014 led to the role being recast for Simon Pegg. Oliver was announced as the voice of Zazu in the upcoming remake of Disney's The Lion King.
Oliver wrote and presented a BBC America campaign to have viewers use closed captioning (subtitles). Shown in brief segments before shows, "The following program contains accents you would have heard a lot more if you hadn't thrown our tea into Boston Harbour," says one. "Not even British people can follow the British accent 100 percent of the time. Therefore you, like me, might want to use closed-captioning." Oliver used some of these jokes in his stand-up routine.
Oliver frequently appeared on the BBC Radio 5 Live sports show Fighting Talk.
From 2002 to 2003, Oliver worked on the BBC 3 comedy series The State We're In, along with Anita Rani, Jon Holmes, and Robin Ince.
In 2003, Oliver manned the "results desk" on an election night episode of Armando Iannucci's satirical show Gash on Channel 4. He would work with Iannucci again in 2005, as a panellist in the second episode of Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive.
In 2004, Oliver wrote and performed in the satirical radio program The Department on BBC Radio 4, with frequent comedy partner Andy Zaltzman and Chris Addison. He portrayed the character Victor Gooch for all three series, prior to the cancellation of the program in 2006.
Oliver performed various roles in the 2009 Comedy Central series Important Things with Demetri Martin.
In 2009, Oliver made a cameo appearance as the actor Rip Torn in the music video for the Fiery Furnaces single "Even in the Rain", which is based on the story of the making of the film Easy Rider.
In 2018, Oliver began working as an executive producer for Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas.
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