Ed Gamble
Edward Stephenson Gamble[1][2] (born 10 March 1986) is an English comedian, best known for co-presenting The Off Menu Podcast with James Acaster. He studied at Durham University, where he began his comedy career performing with the Durham Revue,[3] and was a finalist in the 2007 Chortle Student Comedy Awards.[4] Early life and familyGamble was brought up in Raynes Park, southwest London.[5] His mother, a nurse and health visitor for the NHS, and father, a solicitor, separated when he was four – he was raised mainly by his mother. He has a younger half-sister and half-brother on his father's side.[6] He attended King's College School for secondary education, a private day school for boys in Wimbledon.[7] At school, he "used humour as a defence mechanism". He said that "There's no way that people could make jokes about my weight if I was making them myself, faster and better. Aside from losing weight, this was the best way to ward off bullying, and there was no way I was going to lose weight. I loved food."[8] He attended Durham University, where he studied philosophy and met fellow comedians Nish Kumar, Nick Mohammed and Tom Neenan.[3][9] He was a member of Hatfield College.[10] CareerGamble's early work was alongside Ray Peacock, with whom he presented two different series of The Peacock and Gamble Podcast, totalling over 100 episodes. He also appeared on television, performing a 15-minute set on the extended version of Russell Howard's Good News on BBC Three in late 2010. He performed with Peacock at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2011, 2012 and 2013, as well as supporting Greg Davies on his successful Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog Tour in 2011. Gamble also recorded a series of radio shows with Peacock on FUBAR Radio. In 2014, Gamble debuted solo at Edinburgh Fringe with the show Gambletron 5000, returning in 2015 with Lawman and in 2016 with Stampede. His stand-up performances contain much observational comedy, often aimed at himself, including discussion of his Type 1 diabetes, which he was diagnosed with as a thirteen year old; he chose that as the central topic of his 2018 Edinburgh Fringe show Blizzard[11] and his Amazon Prime Video special Blood Sugar. Gamble was a regular panellist on the BBC panel show Mock the Week from July 2015. In the same year, he appeared with Amy Hoggart in Almost Royal, a faux-reality show on BBC America, where the two portrayed siblings Georgie and Poppy Carlton. The show was shown on E4 in the UK and was followed by a second series in 2016. He guest-hosted the Elis James and John Robins Show on Radio X in 2017 and 2018. Since 2018, Gamble has presented the podcast Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster with fellow comedian James Acaster as well as a weekly Radio X show with Matthew Crosby since 2019. Gamble won the ninth series of Taskmaster in 2019.[12] In 2022, Gamble featured in the second "Champions of Champions" special with fellow winners from series six to ten: Liza Tarbuck, Kerry Godliman, Lou Sanders and Richard Herring. He finished in last place.[13] In October 2020, Gamble began presenting Taskmaster The Podcast, the official podcast companion to the TV show, following the series' move to Channel 4 from Dave.[14] In 2023, Gamble hosted a non-broadcast pilot of Foodmaster, a food-themed spin-off of Taskmaster.[15] In 2020, Gamble narrated adverts for second hand car website Cazoo.[citation needed] In 2020, Gamble was a guest judge on Great British Menu and, in February 2022, he became one of the judges for Series 17, 18 and 19.[16] In May 2022, Gamble was announced as one of six rotating co-hosts joining Alexander Armstrong on Pointless to replace Richard Osman, alongside Sally Lindsay, Konnie Huq, Lauren Laverne, Alex Brooker and Stephen Mangan.[17] Gamble appeared with Acaster on the fifth series of Celebrity Hunted (2023), which tasked participants with evading "Hunters" around the UK for a fortnight. During their appearance they ate in a Michelin starred restaurant,[18] called into Gamble's Radio X programme,[19] and released a video mocking the Hunters.[20] Acaster also gave Gamble a tattoo.[21] Gamble escaped after Acaster goaded the Hunters to the Taskmaster house and squirted them with a water gun. Gamble met with his wife and hid in a brewery and a climbing centre, but was caught soon after.[22][23] In 2022, Gamble toured the UK with his stand-up show Electric.[24] In 2024, a poster advertising Gamble's Hot Diggity Dog tour fell foul of Transport for London's ban on junk food advertising; to comply with the rules, an image of a hot dog was replaced with a cucumber.[25] In October 2023, Gamble published his debut book, titled Glutton: The Multi-Course Life Of A Very Greedy Boy, an autobiography focused through his lifelong obsession with food.[15][26] In January 2024, he hosted The Traitors: Uncloaked, which was a visual podcast that accompanied the 2nd series of The Traitors. Personal lifeGamble has type 1 diabetes, which he has addressed as part of his performances.[11][27] Gamble married TV producer and member of Supermilk Charlie Jamison on 9 September 2021, after postponing three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[28][29] The couple have been together since 2011.[30] References
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