Chris Ramsey

South Shields, open mics and an Edinburgh nomination

Chris Ramsey was born on 3 August 1986 in South Shields, and the town has stayed in his act ever since. He started in comedy in 2007, hosting open-mic nights in Newcastle upon Tyne, and by 2008 he had reached the final of the Chortle Student Comedy Award. A slot in the Comedy Zone showcase at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe followed, then his first solo hour there, Aggrophobic, in 2010.

The breakthrough came in 2011 with Offermation, which was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award and later recorded for BBC Radio 4, going out in March 2012. Feeling Lucky, his 2012 Edinburgh show, went straight into a national tour, and the touring never really stopped: The Most Dangerous Man on Saturday Morning Television in 2013 and 2014, All Growed Up in 2015 and 2016, Is That Chris Ramsey? in 2017 and The Just Happy to Get Out of the House Tour in 2018. All Growed Up was filmed at Newcastle's Tyne Theatre and Opera House and released on DVD on 30 November 2015. The same venue hosted Approval Needed, which arrived as an Amazon Prime Video special on 19 August 2019.

Hebburn, Comedy Central and the reality years

Television arrived early. From October 2012 to December 2013 he played Jack Pearson in Hebburn, Jason Cook's BBC Two sitcom set a few miles from where Ramsey grew up. He did Live at the Apollo in 2014, and in 2016 co-presented I'm A Celebrity: Extra Camp on ITV2 alongside Joe Swash, Vicky Pattison and Stacey Solomon. Comedy Central gave him his own vehicle, The Chris Ramsey Show, from January 2017, and he took over Stand Up Central from Russell Howard the same year.

Two reality runs did more for his profile than any of it. In 2019 he was paired with Karen Hauer on the seventeenth series of Strictly Come Dancing and reached the semi-final, finishing fourth. In 2022 he was runner-up on the thirteenth series of Taskmaster. He hosted Little Mix: The Search for the BBC in 2020 and has been a Children in Need co-host since the same year; the 2024 line-up, announced on 15 October 2024, put him alongside Mel Giedroyc and Lenny Rush.

The podcast that changed the scale

What changed the size of his career was not a broadcaster but a microphone in his living room. Shagged. Married. Annoyed., launched in February 2019 with his wife Rosie, whom he married on 25 July 2014, is recorded weekly at home in South Shields and built on the couple's arguments about parenting and domestic life. Its own figures put it past 300 episodes and 200 million downloads, with a standing place in the top five of the UK podcast chart since that chart began. It won the National Comedy Award for Best Podcast in 2022 and 2023, a Global Award for Best Podcast and the Listeners' Choice award at the British Podcast Awards.

The podcast produced two arena tours, with sell-outs at The O2 and Wembley Arena, a Sunday Times number one bestselling book and a children's book. On 3 February 2025 the Ramseys signed a commercial partnership with the independent network Adelicious, at which point the download count stood at 195 million. They said they would keep making weekly episodes until they had nothing left to argue about, 'which will probably be never'.

The television spin-off had a bumpier life. The Chris & Rosie Ramsey Show launched on BBC Two in 2022 and moved to BBC One for a second series in 2023, with celebrity couples as guests. The Sun reported it shelved in July 2024, then revived in November 2024, and on 31 October 2025 it was confirmed that a third series would not be made. Both series are now streaming on Netflix. Rosie had previously spoken about the strain of doing the podcast, the tour and the TV show at the same time.

Here, Man!: a sold-out spring and an autumn he swore he would not add

His last solo tour, billed as 2020 and pushed by the pandemic into 2021 and 2022, played to more than 100,000 people. A third stand-up special, Chris Ramsey Live From London, went out on Sky in 2024. Here, Man! is the follow-up, and it opened on Sunday 8 February 2026 at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre with a spring run through to late April. The pitch was that it contains all the material he cannot say on the podcast. Jason Cook, who created Hebburn, supported the work-in-progress shows.

The spring dates sold out completely. On 4 March 2026 Avalon announced that the show would be filmed as a stand-up special across two performances, at 7pm and 9.30pm, at Soho Theatre Walthamstow on Wednesday 22 April 2026. Then on 14 April 2026, having repeatedly said he would add no extra dates, Ramsey announced an autumn extension, with a mailing-list presale on 16 April and general sale on 17 April. The autumn leg runs from September to December 2026 and takes in Ipswich Regent, Manchester Opera House, Liverpool Empire, Glasgow's Pavilion Theatre and Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre, with most shows starting at 7.30pm.

Reviews of the spring run were warm. The Daily Telegraph called him 'cracking company for an hour' and found the show 'skilfully constructed and delivered in deceptive off-the-cuff style'. The Times said that once he starts, 'whoomph, he's off with relatable, often relishable remarks about parenthood and domesticity', and judged the material 'deceptively well organised'.

Where things stand in September 2026

Beyond the tour, the diary is full of television. On 25 November 2025 Chortle reported that he would host a Channel 4 Christmas series billed as an alternative Christmas. On 29 July 2026 it was confirmed that he and Sara Pascoe will compete in a Gladiators celebrity special on BBC One later this year against AJ Odudu and George Clarke. The podcast continues weekly, and the two Ramsey chat-show series sit on Netflix.

Nearly two decades after those first open-mic nights in Newcastle, the through-line has not moved. He is still a South Shields lad reporting on marriage, his kids and his own mishaps on live television, delivered fast and in his own accent, to rooms that now hold a couple of thousand people a night.