Kieran Hodgson

Four-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Kieran is an acclaimed actor, writer and comedian.

Over the summer of 2023, Kieran took his latest live show – Big in Scotland – to the Edinburgh Fringe. The reviews were spectacular – Broadway World wrote: ‘[He is] Constantly proving that he is one of the most talented comedians of his generation. With Big in Scotland, Hodgson only further demonstrates this and solidifies his position as one of the best to ever perform at the Fringe.’  The show was nominated for Best Show at the 2023 Edinburgh Comedy Awards - Kieran's forth nomination for the prize! See below for further reviews. 

Before this show, Kieran had four hugely successful shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, three of which resulted in prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show Award Nominations for Lance, Maestro and ’75. Maestro also landed Kieran a nomination for the Times Breakthrough Award at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards. Kieran’s shows have sold out theatres and comedy venues across the UK and his show 'Maestro' featured in series 2 of Amazon's 'Soho Theatre Live' in 2021– watch it here.

His pilot “Prince Andrew: The Musical” was commissioned by Channel 4 as part of their 40^th birthday programming. Described as a "satirical send-up of the life and times of the duke set to a musical score", the hour long special landed on the nation's screens in December 2022 to widespread Twitter buzz and critical acclaim. 

Kieran can now be seen in Warner Bros’ major superhero film, The Flash. He has played series regular Gordon in five series of the smash hit BBC One sitcom Two Doors Down alongside Arabella Weir, Doon Mackichan, Alex Norton, Elaine C Smith and Jonathan Watson. He filmed the latest series of the show over the spring of 2023.

Kieran also recently appeared in Searchlight's feature See How They Run and indie feature, All My Friends Hate Me.

Kieran’s send-up of The Crown went viral in late 2020, garnering 4 million views and even becoming the focus of a Vanity Fair article. He has since followed that up with witty multi-character story-telling sketches based on shows including The Undoing, Queen's Gambit, His Dark Materials, Happy Valley and Bridgerton. Watch several all in one “Bad TV Impressions” reel here (pw: united).

Kieran's Channel 4 comedy special, How Europe Stole My Mum, aired in late 2019. The Guardian gave it 5 stars and called it, "Nothing short of a Brexit miracle."   A follow-up Channel 4 special, How We Forgot to Save The Planet, aired in 2021. A comedy-documentary about the environment, it received praise from the Herald: 'Hodgson manages the impossible task of getting a laugh out of environmentalism...come again anytime, any subject.'

Other recent film and television roles include: Netflix's The Irregulars, , Alibi's Miss Scarlet & The Duke, BBC3 / BBC One’s Bafta-nominated Pls Like series 2, as a regular in two series of BBC3's hit Famalam, Channel Four’s pilot The Mr Swallow Show starring Nick Mohammed, Dave's Unspun With Matt Forde, Netflix's Lovesick, and as Malcolm McLaren in Sky Arts' Urban Myths: The Sex Pistols vs Bill Grundy.           

Kieran’s Channel Four Blap, God’s Own County, which he wrote and also starred in alongside Monica Dolan and Jim Howick, was released in summer 2018. It was developed with Jonny Sweet and Simon Bird’s production company Guilty Party Pictures and produced by TV Burp’s Spencer Millman and is being developed further for Channel Four. Watch it here.

He also appeared in BBC 2’s single drama We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story alongside John Sessions and Sally Phillips, BBC 2’s Ben Elton–penned Shakespearean sitcom Upstart Crow alongside David Mitchell, Harry Enfield and Spencer Jones, as well as Sky’s Mr Swallow’s Valentine with Nick Mohammed and the box office smash Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.   

His many radio credits include BBC Radio 4’s The School For Scandal alongside Roger Allam, Hugh Bonneville and Susannah Fielding and Pliny the Younger in Radio 4's How To Survive The Roman Empire by Pliny And Me. Kieran also wrote and performed his BBC Radio 4 series Kieran Hodgson's Earworms inspired by Maestro and recorded a special live version of Lance.

Kieran is also a hugely in-demand writer and performer who currently has his own scripted projects in development with Objective Fiction, Guilty Party Pictures / C4 and Merman Films / C4. He is also working with Fox Searchlight on a feature project.

Reviews for Big In Scotland:

‘ [He is] Constantly proving that he is one of the most talented comedians of his generation. With Big in Scotland, Hodgson only further demonstrates this and solidifies his position as one of the best to ever perform at the Fringe.’ ✭✭✭✭✭ Broadway World

‘Simply put, with Big in Scotland, Kieran Hodgson has the audience in the palm of his hands. This is a show that you just have to see at this year's Fringe.’ ✭✭✭✭ Chortle

‘Big in Scotland … is as wise, funny and endearingly virtuosic as anything he has done.’ ✭✭✭✭ The Times

"Hodgson pulls off a very clever balancing-act here [...] This charming show reminded me of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid’s great line: “Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?” ✭✭✭✭ The Telegraph

‘For a show that’s sure to be – deservedly – Big in Edinburgh, look no further.’ ✭✭✭✭ The Guardian

‘Hodgson, as ever, entertains us.’ ✭✭✭✭ The Arts Desk

‘Throughout his brilliant, one-man, one-hour show Hodgson asks a series of near impossible-to-answer questions … Kieran Hodgson is indeed Big In Scotland. And it’s easy to see why.’ The National

‘A life-changing move north of the border brought Kieran Hodgson wider recognition and material for another cracking show. Throughout, the charming Hodgson strikes a wonderful balance of supplementing his past wide-eyed and smug middle-class ignorance with penetrating insight and commentary on contemporary Scotland’s foibles and failings.’ ✭✭✭✭ The List

‘An exquisite love letter to Scotland, enveloped in a silly yet cerebral story. Kieran Hodgson is flawless, funny and undoubtedly the Fringe’s finest. For what sells as a straightforward stand-up routine, this is an unexpected diamond of a show: a superbly written, layered piece of work, with humour at every turn.’ ✭✭✭✭✭ Everything Theatre

‘The joke rate is phenomenal and it is testament to Hodgson’s talents as writer and performer that he brings so much to a one-hour show. What makes it particularly memorable is his ability to weave together his views of a nation and its characters with an unassuming portrait of himself creating moments of hilarity and emotion.’ ✭✭✭✭ Broadway Baby

‘He is a talented performer who is a success story of the festival. Kieran has worked his way from performing in small capacity spaces to now selling out larger venues, refining his craft to become one of the best to see this fringe. It's an entertaining hour of comedy filled with funny moments throughout.’ ✭✭✭✭✭ The Scots Reviewer

The brainbox English comic returns with a deliciously provocative homage to his adopted home of Scotland - Kieran Hodgson is the master of high-concept stand-up’ ✭✭✭✭ Time Out

Reviews for Prince Andrew: The Musical:

"Irreverent and deliberately ridiculous" The Telegraph

"[Hodgson] is a genuine talent, and the songs here are far better than they have any right to be." The Telegraph

"...anyone who has seen Hodgson’s inspired spoofs of The Crown online, and indeed his sprightly performance as Gordon in the Scottish sitcom Two Doors Down, will know he is a talented lampooner. And it didn’t take long for this to shine through, sometimes gloriously. I couldn’t imagine, before seeing it, how it could possibly work. The answer was with maximum mockery, taking nothing seriously and interspersing the (cleverly written and well performed) songs with real clips of Andrew at various points in his life, from being a Falklands hero pin-up and marrying Sarah Ferguson to his hilariously catastrophic interview with Maitlis." The Times

"Kieran Hodgson, 34 – who plays the younger and older Prince Andrew – perfectly captures the pomp, arrogance and deluded grandeur of the royal in just the right comic proportions."  Tatler

"It’s a full panto spectacular: all earnest, unwavering grins, jazz fingers and choreographed movements."  Tatler

Reviews for ’75:

 ‘The single most brilliant thing anyone's said about Brexit' ✭✭✭✭✭ The Londonist

 ‘It’s breathless, it’s bonkers and it’s often high-brow…’ ✭✭✭✭✭ The Wee Review 

‘There are quite a few shows about Brexit at the Fringe this year… But I highly doubt any are quite as frenetically witty and refreshingly even-handed as ‘75’ ✭✭✭✭✭ Theatre Weekly

‘Everything’s unusual – and ravishingly entertaining, informative and full of insight and laughs – in the show…’  ✭✭✭✭ The Times 

‘There’s a delicious perfectionism here to the writing, structure and delivery that puts most other shows to shame’  ✭✭✭✭ The Telegraph 

‘Another sterling display of comic prowess from Kieran Hodgson’ ✭✭✭✭ The List

‘It’s a show about Brexit that manages to be inclusive, clever and funny at the same time’ ✭✭✭✭Short Com

‘Hodgson’s considerable skills as a vocal caricaturist are part of the pleasure here; so too the frequency and quality of the jokes…' ✭✭✭✭ The Guardian  

‘This is rich, thoughtful but belly-laugh stuff from an act whose showy virtuosity as both a character and confessional comic is backed by some outstanding writing’ ✭✭✭✭ The Scotsman

'It's the mother of history lessons, both good to know and also holds your interest in increasingly inventive ways.' ✭✭✭✭ The Skinny 

'One of the best researched and most thoughtful takes on the topic you are likely to see - insightful as well as genuinely funny.' ✭✭✭✭ What's On Stage 

Reviews for MAESTRO:

'This could well be the show of the Fringe.' ✭✭✭✭✭ The Telegraph

'Simultaneously one of the funniest and most heart-warming acts at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Kieran Hodgson is not to be missed.​' ✭✭✭✭✭ Broadway Baby

'This is comedy that feels in some way transcendental.  You leave Maestro feeling uplifted and elated.' ✭✭✭✭✭ TV BOMB

Reviews for LANCE:

‘An absolute gem...a delight to watch' ✭✭✭✭✭ The Guardian

'Kieran Hodgson has here served up a one-man effort that lets his comedic talents roar as never before.' ✭✭✭✭ The Telegraph

'A triumph of a show...with plenty of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments.' ✭✭✭✭1/2 Chortle