Wyatt Cenac, John Oliver, and Rory Albanese after performing comedy at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in April 2009 In an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Oliver revealed one of his first paying jobs was writing for the British morning show The Big Breakfast. In 1998, Oliver graduated from Cambridge with a degree in English. In 1997, he became the club's vice president. Oliver's contemporaries included David Mitchell and Richard Ayoade. While a student there in the mid-to-late 1990s, Oliver was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, the university theatrical club run by students of Cambridge University. įollowing secondary school, he studied at Christ's College, Cambridge. Oliver was educated in Bedford at the Mark Rutherford School. Since childhood, he has been a fan of Liverpool FC, noting in interviews that "my mum's family are from Knotty Ash and my dad's family are from the Wirral, so supporting Liverpool was very much not a choice". Oliver learned to play the viola as a child. William Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon and court chaplain to Queen Victoria, was his paternal great-great-grandfather. His uncle was the composer Stephen Oliver. Both of his parents are originally from Liverpool, Merseyside. His father was both a school headmaster and social worker, and his mother was a music teacher. Oliver was born on 23 April 1977 in Erdington, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, to Carole and Jim Oliver. 3 Influence and "The John Oliver effect".2.6 John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show.Oliver's work has been described as journalism or investigative journalism, a description Oliver rejects. For his work on Last Week Tonight, Oliver has won thirteen 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". 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".
Biden mocks freedom series#
Since 2014, Oliver has been the host of the HBO series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He has also acted on television, most notably in a recurring role as Professor Ian Duncan on the NBC sitcom Community, and in films, notably voice-over work in The Smurfs (2011), The Smurfs 2 (2013), and the 2019 remake of The Lion King. In addition, 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. Oliver won three Primetime Emmy Awards for writing for The Daily Show and was the show's guest host for an eight-week period in 2013. He came to wider attention for his work in the United States on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its senior British correspondent from 2006 to 2013. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host.