Six stand-ups vie for the title

Here are the finalists in this year’s New Comedy Awards.

Five of the heats have already been broadcast on BBC Three with the last one airing tomorrow night – so don’t read on if you don’t want to find out who won that.

The final will take place at St David's Hall in Cardiff tomorrow, as a precursor to the BBC’s City of Comedy events in the Welsh capital in 2023.

Battling it out for a title previously won by the likes of Alan Carr, Tom Allen, Rhod Gilbert and Nina Conti are:

Dee Allum (Deptford heat winner)

Allum is one of three comedians on the bill who were shortlisted for best newcomer at the Chortle Awards earlier this year. She is no stranger to competition finals, having won London venue 2Northdown's New Act of 2021 and been a finalist in the LGBTQ+ comedian of the year and the Naty new act of the year competitions. A trans comedian, she describes herself as ‘the most interesting person to come out of Watford since Elton John’.

Omar Badawy (Exeter heat winner)

Another 2022 Chortle newcomer nominee – a year after making the finals of our student comedy awards – Badawy’s high point so far has been winning So You Think You're Funny? at the 2021  Edinburgh Fringe. Originally from Egypt, he moved to Wales in his childhood.

Joshua Bethania (Coventry heat winner)

Bethania – an  Indian comic, now living in London – won So You Think You're Funny? at this year’s Fringe and is also a regular finalist in new act competitions, including the Natys, West End New Act of the Year and the Max Turner Prize 

Robbie McShane (Derry heat winner)

A Northern Irish comedian who was named Belfast's best newcomer in 2018, and was shortlisted for Ireland’s breakout act of the year in 2019. He says he was inspired to take up stand-up after watching a performance by Jimeoin.

Marjolein Robertson (Kilmarnock heat winner)

A comedian and storyteller from Shetland, Robertson started in comedy after doing a course in Amsterdam in 2014 and has five solo Edinburgh shows under her belt, starting in 2016. She is a regular panelist on BBC Radio Scotland’s topical panel show Breaking The News and  has performed stand-up on BBC Scotland's TV series The Comedy Underground.

Dan Tiernan (Middlesbrough heat winner)

Tiernan – the third Chortle best newcomer nominee in the line-up-– was named breakthrough act of 2021 at the North West Comedy Awards. With a set based on being a  gay, dyspraxic Mancunian who works in a care home for young asylum seekers, he has previously made the finals of the new act competitions run by the  Leicester and Bath comedy festivals, and London’s Leicester Square Theatre.

The final of the BBC New Comedy Awards will air on BBC One on November 9 at 10.40pm, presented by Kerry Godliman and with judges Fern Brady, Rosie Jones, Nabil Abdulrashid.

The winner will receive a paid commission to write and perform in a 30-minute audio pilot under the mentorship of a BBC comedy commissioner, plus a trophy and £1,000 cash.

Published: 31 Oct 2022