Tim Key

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Tim Key
Key performing in 2010
Born	(1976-09-02) 2 September 1976 (age 47) Cambridgeshire, England
Alma mater	University of Sheffield (BA)
Occupations	Actor comedian poet radio personality screenwriter
Years active	2001–present
Website	timkey.co.uk

Tim Key (born 2 September 1976) is an English poet, comedian, actor and screenwriter. He has performed at the

Key's first appearance with the Footlights was in the stage production Far Too Happy in 2001.[6] The cast, which included Mark Watson and Sophie Winkleman, took the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and were nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. Key has regularly attended Edinburgh ever since, performing in solo shows and collaborations.

In 2009, Key's solo poetry show The Slutcracker won the Edinburgh Comedy Award and was nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.^[7] He took the show to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival the following year.

Key co-starred in

Key's comedy show Megadate toured from 2017 to 2018. Like The Slutcracker, it featured Key reading "deliberately bad" poetry interspersed with black-and-white films.[11]

In 2023, Key toured his sell-out show Mulberry around the UK and Ireland,^[12] as well as a run at the SoHo Playhouse in New York City.^[13] The show was centred around Key's experience of COVID-19 in the UK.

Radio

Key has regularly been heard on BBC Radio 4 since 2006, when the station commissioned All Bar Luke, a series based on his earlier stage show Luke & Stella. It aired from 2006 to 2008, with a Christmas special in 2009. Key's prior radio projects included Cowards and Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better.

In 2010, Key was heard as Duncan in the radio sitcom Party, created by Tom Basden and based on the stage show of the same name.^[14] In 2012, he reunited with Basden for Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme, a series that features Key reading poetry and Basden providing musical accompaniment, intercut with dialogue between the two. Six series of the show have been broadcast as of 2024.^[15]

Album

Key's first album, Tim Key. With a String Quartet. On a Boat. was released by The Invisible Dot Ltd / Angular Records in November 2010. It features Key reading poetry backed by a string quartet, with interjections from Basden.

Television

Key first appeared on television in 2006's satirical comedy Time Trumpet, as an Eastenders special effects supervisor. The next year, he appeared as himself in Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, reading poetry. He also appeared in an episode of Saxondale alongside future Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge co-star Steve Coogan.

In 2009, Key (along with

In November 2010, Key appeared as "Sidekick Simon" alongside Steve Coogan on Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge, an online series based on Coogan's Alan Partridge character. The series was also broadcast on Sky Atlantic in 2012. Key would appear again as Simon in the 2013 film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa and the BBC series This Time with Alan Partridge.

In 2013, Key played Greg in the E4 comedy-drama series Gap Year. In 2014, he played Ian in the Inside No. 9 episode "Sardines". His performance was praised,^[17] with one journalist calling him "an unsung hero of British comedy".^[18] The following year, he was a panellist on the first series of Taskmaster and has been credited as a "Task Consultant" since the show's second series.

Key has also had minor roles in shows such as

In 2022, Key starred in the BBC Two comedy series The Witchfinder. That year he also appeared as Ray, nemesis and old archery teammate of Paul (Jim Howick) in an episode of friend Tom Basden's BBC1 sitcom, Here We Go.

He appeared on the Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer in 2023, opening up about his experience of being diagnosed with a melanoma. ^[19]

Film

Key and Basden collaborated on short film