Russell Kane - Career

Career

In 2004, Kane won the Laughing Horse New Act of The Year, and in 2005 he came second in So You Think You're Funny. He joined Ray Peacock, Russell Howard and Reginald D Hunter on the national Paramount Edinburgh and Beyond tour in October 2005. In November 2005, he filmed the World Comedy Tour in Australia. He was also asked to be the face of one-off live music event Guerrilla Gig which aired on BBC Three in March 2006. He has appeared on various comedy panels, and filmed four other live stand-up performances to date. In July 2006, British terrestrial station Five decided to launch Five US, for which Kane was selected to write and present travelogues. Russell travels every other month to the United States, creating light-hearted pieces on American culture, and interviewing various television and film actors.

In August 2006, he took his debut comedy show The Theory of Pretension to the Edinburgh Fringe, where he received an Edinburgh Comedy award nomination. In 2006–07 he appeared in Fakespeare Shortcuts on the UK's Paramount Comedy Channel, also starring his longtime girlfriend Sadie Hasler. He presented Big Brother's Big Mouth on E4 and Channel 4 from 26 June to 29 June 2007. He again toured with The Edinburgh and Beyond Tour in autumn/winter 2007.

He was the host of BBC Radio 2's Out to Lunch from series 4 onwards. He presents a Sunday afternoon show on the relaunched Q Radio digital radio station. In August 2008 he took a stand-up show Gaping Flaws to the Edinburgh Festival. It was nominated for the 2008 Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly known as the Perrier Award). He also took his hour-long play, The Lamentable Tragedie of Yates's Wine Lodge, which transferred for one night to the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon. It was performed on the Courtyard Theatre's main stage on 31 August 2008.

On 20 November, Kane performed at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, for the BBC's popular comedy programme Live at the Apollo. It was broadcast on 5 December on BBC1, replacing Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. In 2009, he returned to Edinburgh with two new shows one entitled Fakespeare which is a play, and his new Stand up show Human Dressage. His Fakespeare play, a sell-out success, will go on tour in February 2010. Human Dressage saw him nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for the third time, and toured from October 2009 to January 2010.

He appeared on the presenting team of the 2009 ITV2 Show – I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Now, a role which he reprised for the 2010 and 2011 edition of the show, where he co-hosted with Laura Whitmore and Joe Swash. He presented Freak Like Me on BBC Three during the winter of 2010. This programme displayed the strange habits of various members of society. He appeared periodically throughout the programme as the narrator and presenter.

In November 2011, he won a Children in Need edition of Celebrity Mastermind, with the specialist subject "The Life and Novels of Evelyn Waugh". On 5 July 2011 and 27 March 2012, he presented Geordie Shore: The Reunion for MTV (UK and Ireland). His debut novel, The Humorist, was published by Simon and Schuster in April 2012. In 2012, he co-presented Britain Unzipped with Greg James on BBC Three, which was renamed Unzipped for series 2. He also presents Live at the Electric on Thursdays on BBC Three.