John Oliver

John Oliver
John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention for his work in the United States as Senior British Correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2006 to 2013. Oliver won three Primetime Emmy Awards for writing for The Daily Show and he became the guest host for an eight-week period in 2013. He also co-hosted the comedy podcast The Bugle with Andy Zaltzman, with whom Oliver had previously worked with on the radio series Political Animal. From 2010 to 2013, Oliver hosted his stand-up series John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show on Comedy Central. He has also acted on television, most prominently in a recurring role as Dr Ian Duncan on the NBC sitcom Community, and in films, including voice-over work in The Smurfs (2011), The Smurfs 2 (2013), and the 2019 remake of The Lion King. He became a US citizen in 2019.
Since 2014, Oliver has been the host of the HBO series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He has received widespread critical and popular recognition for his work on the series, and its influence over US culture, legislation and policymaking has been dubbed the "John Oliver effect". For his work on Last Week Tonight, Oliver has won fourteen Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards and was included in the 2015 Time 100. Time described him as a "comedic agent of change...powerful because he isn't afraid to tackle important issues thoughtfully, without fear or apology". Oliver's work has been described as journalism or investigative journalism; labels that Oliver rejects.
Early life and education
John William Oliver was born on 23 April 1977 in Birmingham, England, to Carole and Jim Oliver. His father, from the Wirral Peninsula, was both a school headmaster and social worker, and his mother, from Liverpool, was a music teacher. His uncle was the composer Stephen Oliver. Oliver attended the Mark Rutherford School in Bedford and learned to play the viola as a child.
Following secondary school, he studied at Christ's College, Cambridge. While a student there in the mid-to-late 1990s, Oliver was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, the university theatrical club run by students of Cambridge University. Oliver's contemporaries included David Mitchell and Richard Ayoade, and he became the club's vice president in 1997. In 1998, Oliver graduated with a degree in English.
Career
1985–2005: Early career
Oliver's first appearance on-screen was playing Felix Pardiggle, a minor role in the BBC drama Bleak House, in 1985. In an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, he commented, "When I was six years old ... [the BBC] wanted a kid with dark hair and brown eyes, and I was two-for-two on that". In 2001, Oliver appeared as a bank manager in series two of People Like Us. Oliver said in a later Seth Meyers appearance that one of his first paying jobs was writing for the British morning show The Big Breakfast.
Oliver's first major stand-up appearance was at the 2001 Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the late-night showcase The Comedy Zone, where he played an "oleaginous journalist". Oliver frequently worked with other members of the comedian group the Chocolate Milk Gang, including Daniel Kitson, Russell Howard, David O'Doherty, and Alun Cochrane. His debut solo show was at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and he returned the following year. In 2004 and 2005, he performed in a double act and co-hosted the political radio show Political Animal with Andy Zaltzman.
From 2002 to 2003, Oliver worked on the BBC Three comedy series The State We're In, along with Anita Rani, Jon Holmes, and Robin Ince. In 2003, Oliver manned the "results desk" on an election night episode of Armando Iannucci's satirical show Gash on Channel 4. In 2004, Oliver wrote and performed in the satirical radio programme The Department on BBC Radio 4 with Andy Zaltzman and Chris Addison. Starting in June 2005, Oliver made appearances on British television as a panellist on the satirical news show Mock the Week, and became a frequent guest on the first two series.
2006–2013: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
In July 2006, Oliver joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its Senior British Correspondent. He says he was interviewed for the show on the recommendation of comedian Ricky Gervais, who had never met Oliver, but was familiar with his work. Two weeks after the interview, he got the job, flying from London to New York City on a Sunday and unexpectedly appearing on camera the next day. Oliver received Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for The Daily Show in 2009, 2011, and 2012.
In 2007, Oliver wrote and presented a BBC America campaign to have viewers use closed captions. Shown in brief segments before shows, one of the campaign messages said, "The following program contains accents you would have heard a lot more if you hadn't thrown our tea into Boston Harbor ... Not even British people can follow the British accent 100 per cent of the time. Therefore you, like me, might want to use closed-captioning." Oliver used some of these jokes in his stand-up routine.
After moving to New York City, Oliver began performing stand-up comedy in clubs, later headlining shows in larger venues. From October 2007 to May 2015, Oliver co-hosted The Bugle, a weekly comedy podcast, with Andy Zaltzman. Originally produced by The Times, it became an independent project in 2012. John Oliver: Terrifying Times, his first stand-up special, premiered on Comedy Central in 2008. In 2009, Comedy Central announced that it would be ordering six episodes of the John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show, a series on Comedy Central that featured sets from himself and other comedians, including Janeane Garofalo, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins and Marc Maron. From 2010 to 2013, four seasons were produced. In 2013, he went to Afghanistan on a USO tour to perform for the troops. Oliver continues to perform stand-up.Oliver had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom Community as the professor of psychology Dr Ian Duncan. Owing to his work at The Daily Show, he declined the offer to become a regular member of the cast, and did not appear in the third, fourth, or sixth seasons, but returned in season five, appearing in seven of its thirteen episodes. In 2008, Oliver played Dick Pants in The Love Guru, his first film role. He later voiced Vanity Smurf in The Smurfs film and its sequel. Oliver performed several roles in the 2009 Comedy Central series Important Things with Demetri Martin. In 2009, Oliver made a cameo appearance in the music video for The Fiery Furnaces' single "Even in the Rain".
Starting in June 2013, Oliver guest-hosted The Daily Show for eight weeks while Stewart directed his film Rosewater. Oliver's performance received positive reviews, with some critics suggesting that he should eventually succeed Stewart as the host, or receive his own show. CBS discussed the possibility of Oliver replacing Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show. Three months after his role as the interim Daily Show host ended, HBO announced it was giving Oliver his own late-night show.
2014–present: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
In 2014, Oliver began hosting his current events late-night talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The show features thoroughly-researched segments dedicated to topics or events in the news. His initial two-year contract was extended through to 2017 in 2015, to 2020 in September 2017, and to 2023 in September 2020. Oliver has stated that he has full creative freedom, including free rein to criticise corporations, given HBO's ad-free subscription model. In 2015, Oliver was named one of Time 100 influential people of the year for his work on the show. Across the TV airings, DVR, on-demand, and HBO Go, Last Week Tonight averaged 4.1 million weekly viewers in its first season. In 2014, Last Week Tonight was honoured with a Peabody Award in the "Entertainment" category for "bringing satire and journalism even closer together". The show received a second award in 2017. The show has also won 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, five Writers Guild of America Awards, eight Producers Guild Awards, and three Critics' Choice Television Awards.
Oliver has guest-starred in several TV shows, including The Simpsons as Booth Wilkes-John (2014); Gravity Falls as the voice of Sherlock Holmes (2012); Rick and Morty as an amoeba named Dr Xenon Bloom (2013); Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja as the voice of Coach Green (2012–15); My Hero as a man from the BBC (2001); Green Wing as a car salesman (2004); Big Mouth as the camp counsellor Harry (2020); and Bob's Burgers as a cat agent (2017). Oliver was originally cast in 2010 to star in the Terry Jones film Absolutely Anything as Neil Clarke, but scheduling conflicts due to the debut of Last Week Tonight in 2014 led to the role being recast for Simon Pegg. In 2019, Oliver voiced the porcupine Steve in the CGI animated film Wonder Park and hornbill Zazu in the remake of Disney's The Lion King. From 2018 to 2019, Oliver worked as an executive producer for Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas. On 30 August 2023, Oliver began hosting the comedy podcast Strike Force Five with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers, to support their staff members out of work due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.
Influences
Oliver has said that among his comedic influences are Armando Iannucci, David Letterman, Monty Python, Peter Cook, Richard Pryor, and Jon Stewart. Oliver said regarding Monty Python, "I saw Life of Brian in middle school, when a substitute teacher put it on to keep us quiet on a rainy day ... I've never forgotten how it made me feel". Edward Helmore wrote in The Guardian about Oliver's comedy, "His style leans toward the kind that Americans like best from the British – exaggerated, full of odd accents and mannerisms, in the vein of Monty Python." Oliver describes his own accent as a "mongrel" of Brummie, Scouse, and Bedford influences.
Personal life
Oliver lives in New York City with his wife Kate Norley, an Iraq War veteran who served as a United States Army medic. Oliver has said that they met at the 2008 Republican National Convention; he was reporting for The Daily Show and Norley was campaigning with Vets for Freedom. She and other veterans hid Oliver, the other correspondents, and the camera crew from security. The two married in 2011 and have two sons, one born prematurely in 2015 and the other born in 2018. Oliver occasionally wears a 1st Cavalry Division lapel pin – his wife's unit in Iraq. Oliver has a younger sister who lives in Australia.
Oliver's immigration status when he joined The Daily Show in 2006 placed certain constraints on what he could do in the United States, but also provided him with comedy material as he poked fun at the opacity and occasional absurdity of the process of obtaining US residency. During the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, which temporarily stopped production of The Daily Show, Oliver participated in picketing protests; he appeared on the show upon its resuming production on 7 January 2008. During a sketch, he pointed out that he was then in America on a visitor visa that requires him not to strike while the show is in production, as violation of the terms of the visa would be grounds for deportation.
In an episode of The Bugle released on 2 November 2009 and recorded three days earlier, Oliver announced that he was approved for his US green card, noting that now he can "get arrested filming bits for The Daily Show". Oliver says he was given a scare when applying at the US embassy in London when an immigration officer asked, "Give me one good reason I should let you back in to insult my country?", which the officer followed up with, "Oh, I'm just kidding, I love the show". Since then, he has referred to Americans as "us" or "you" based on what each segment has demanded. Oliver was naturalized as a US citizen on 13 December 2019. Since moving to the United States, Oliver has been a fan of the New York Mets. Oliver has said that being a New York Yankees fan would be the "wrong thing to do morally".
Oliver's philanthropy includes an on-air giveaway in which he forgave over $15 million of medical debt owed by over 9,000 people. He purchased the debt for $60,000 and forgave it on his show on 4 June 2016. Oliver was raised in the Church of England. In an interview with Terry Gross, he said his Anglicanism lapsed when he was aged 12 because of the death of a school friend and an uncle, and a feeling of not having received any useful answers from his church.
Political views
Oliver was opposed to Brexit, making multiple pieces about it and calling it "painful, it's pointless, and most of you didn't even agree to run it; you were just signed up by your dumbest friend". He also found it "sad" to consider that his children with British citizenship would not experience the benefits of the EU. He has also been particularly critical of the British Conservative Party, and of Boris Johnson when he was Prime Minister of the UK. In November 2022, he made a piece criticising the British monarchy, stating "we've long evolved past needing them". He also criticised the Royal Family's secrecy concerning their wealth, calling them "a freeloading multimillionaire family exempt from paying most taxes" and stating that "the Royal Family's wealth ― unlike its gene pool ― is massive". Oliver declined an Order of the British Empire. On a September 2022 edition of Late Night with Seth Meyers, he said he declined the award because the words "British Empire" in its title made him uncomfortable.
In American politics, Oliver favoured Joe Biden for president in the 2020 election, later celebrating his victory over Donald Trump. He warned that "more than 70 million people voted for [Trump] and everything he said and stands for, and that is something we are going to have to reckon with for the foreseeable future". Due to his strong criticism of Trump and the Republican Party on Last Week Tonight, Oliver and Last Week Tonight have been accused of liberal bias; Zac Davis wrote in America that Oliver "robs his viewers of the opportunity to think, or have any deep understanding of an issue". Politico argued that Oliver criticised liberal politicians as much as those on the right.
Oliver has expressed support for LGBT and transgender rights, abortion rights, immigration reform (particularly making access to immigration systems easier), criminal justice reform (particularly stopping wrongful convictions and harmful prison labour), police reform, Medicare for All, net neutrality, legalization of drugs (particularly marijuana), and gun control. He has expressed opposition to the death penalty and lethal injections, solitary confinement, and US drone strikes.
Legacy
Reception and the "John Oliver effect"
Oliver's comedic commentary has been credited with influencing US legislation, regulations, court rulings, and other aspects of US culture; this has been dubbed the "John Oliver effect". This came from the show's fifth episode, which dealt with net neutrality, a subject that had previously been considered obscure and technical. Oliver documented problems attributed to internet service providers and argued that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could resolve these concerns with upcoming changes to internet regulation. Oliver then encouraged viewers to submit public comments through the FCC's website. The FCC's website promptly crashed. Internal FCC emails revealed that the clip was being watched inside the agency. The FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler publicly addressed the video. The day after the broadcast, the FCC had received over 45,000 comments on net neutrality; in total, it received 3.7 million comments on the subject, by far the most for any issue in the agency's history. Reporters detected a shift in the FCC's stance: Before Oliver's segment, The New York Times described an FCC proposal that would leave net neutrality "all but dead", but the paper later said that Wheeler showed "a steady shift toward stronger regulation". A study conducted in 2018 found that viewers of Last Week Tonight and The Colbert Report were generally more familiar with net neutrality than non-viewers; Last Week Tonight viewers were also more likely to support strict regulation to ensure net neutrality. In the end, the FCC enacted robust net neutrality rules that classified the broadband internet service as a public utility. Oliver was credited with transforming the net neutrality debate.
A Ninth Circuit Court judge cited a Last Week Tonight segment about the lesser constitutional rights of residents of US territories in a ruling in favour of the residents of Guam. Members of Congress credited Oliver with helping to win a vote to enforce protections for chicken farmers who speak out about industry practices, after a Last Week Tonight segment on the subject. A Washington, D.C., council member proposed a resolution in Oliver's honour after he aired a segment on the district's struggle to attain statehood. A study published in 2022 found that "calls for action" by Oliver in seasons seven and eight of Last Week Tonight raised over $5 million for charities and other causes.
Oliver maintains that he is not a journalist, but reporters have contended that his show is a form of journalism. The Peabody Awards honoured Oliver, saying his programme engages in "investigative reports that 'real' news programs would do well to emulate". One example of Oliver's investigative work is a segment on the Miss America organization, which bills itself as "the world's largest provider of scholarships for women". Oliver's team, which includes four researchers with journalism backgrounds, collected and analysed the organization's state and federal tax returns to find that its scholarship programme only distributes a small fraction of the claimed "$45 million made available annually". Oliver said that at the national level, the Miss America Organization and Miss America Foundation together spent only $482,000 in cash scholarships in 2012. the official YouTube video of Oliver's Miss America segment has been viewed more than 23 million times. The Society of Women Engineers said Oliver's reference to their scholarship led to $25,000 in donations over the subsequent two days.
Oliver also founded and legally incorporated a church, Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, to demonstrate how easy it is to qualify as a church and receive tax-exempt status in the United States. The church was created in conjunction with a segment on televangelists who have tax-free mansions and private jets funded by millions of dollars in donations, which are sent in the belief that money given to televangelists can result in God rewarding donors with money, blessings, and by curing diseases. The next week, Oliver showed off the large quantity of donations posted to him, which included $70,000 in cash, a large cheque, and other gifts. The church's website stated that donations would go to Doctors Without Borders upon the church's dissolution.
Oliver's February 2016 segment on presidential candidate Donald Trump received 62 million views on Facebook and 23 million on YouTube within a month, and was reportedly the "most watched piece of HBO content ever". A network spokesperson said that this was "a record for any piece of HBO content". In 2018 on Last Week Tonight, Oliver presented the children's book A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a parody of Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President. A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo featured the rabbit Marlon Bundo, who was the pet of the 48th US Vice President Mike Pence, in a gay relationship. During the 2023 Reddit API controversy, the major subreddits r/pics, r/gifs, and r/aww, among others, protested at Reddit's API policy changes by only allowing content containing Oliver.
John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward
In May 2018, actor Russell Crowe donated approximately $80,000 to the Australia Zoo wildlife hospital for the creation and naming of "The John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward". Oliver had previously bought in an auction several film props that had been used by Crowe, including his jockstrap from Cinderella Man, which he sent to one of the last Alaskan Blockbuster Video shops for exhibition. Crowe then donated the proceeds from the auction towards the establishment of the Chlamydia Ward named after Oliver, calling it "a cool way" to honour him. Covering the story on his show, Oliver admitted admiration for the gag: "Well played, Russell Crowe. Well played indeed. That may honestly be the greatest thing I've ever seen." Crowe visited the ward in early 2020, posing with the nameplate bearing Oliver's name.
John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant
In August 2020, the mayor of Danbury, Connecticut, Mark Boughton, announced in a Facebook video his intention to rename the Danbury Water Pollution Control Plant as the "John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant" as a comedic symbol of his displeasure at Oliver's hyperbolic insult to the city during a segment concerning alleged racial disparities in a jury selection process. After reporting that Connecticut jury rolls had excluded two entire towns, Oliver said, "If you're going to forget a town in Connecticut, why not forget Danbury?" Oliver then humorously offered to "thrash" the entire town, including its children.
As a response to Boughton's video, Oliver embraced the idea enthusiastically, promising to donate $55,000 to Danbury charities if the city renamed the sewage plant after him. After the city council voted 18–1 in favour of naming the plant after him, Oliver visited Danbury to attend the unveiling ceremony on 8 October 2020 in person, wearing a hazmat suit. Mayor Boughton had made Oliver's personal attendance a condition for the renaming, and Oliver complied, revealing footage of his trip on Last Week Tonight the following week.
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
Oliver won three Primetime Emmy Awards, one WGA Award, and one Grammy Award for his work at The Daily Show. For Last Week Tonight, he has received fourteen Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, eight PGA Awards, and six WGA Awards. Oliver has also received nominations for his writing on the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear and for hosting Last Week Tonight.
Published works
See also
New Yorkers in journalism
Notes and references
Notes
References
External links
1977 births
Living people
British television personalities
American television personalities
Male television personalities
Late night television talk show hosts
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Writers Guild of America Award winners
British male comedians
Comedians from Birmingham, West Midlands
20th-century English comedians
21st-century English comedians
American male comedians
21st-century American comedians
British political commentators
American political commentators
British male television actors
British male voice actors
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
21st-century American male actors
British comedy writers
British television writers
British male television writers
American comedy writers
American male television writers
British television producers
American television producers
British podcasters
American podcasters
National Youth Theatre members
British republicans
Anti-monarchists
Former Anglicans
People with multiple nationality
People with acquired American citizenship
British emigrants to the United States
Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
People educated at Mark Rutherford School
Male actors from Birmingham, West Midlands