Alex Horne

Links:

Roles:

Taskmaster, Assistant, Guest

Biography

Alexander James Jeffery Horne (born on 10 September 1978) is a British comedian, and the creator of the BAFTA award-winning Taskmaster television series, a comedy panel show in which he is the assistant to ‘Taskmaster’ Greg Davies, who judges comedians on various absurd tasks they are asked to perform. He is also the host and bandleader of The Horne Section, a comedic band with whom he runs their eponymous podcast, as well as their music variety show which has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Dave.

He made his first appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000 with his show, How To Avoid Huge Ships. His 2003 Edinburgh show, Making Fish Laugh was nominated for a Perrier newcomer award. In 2004 he won a Chortle Award for Best Breakthrough Act. His shows with Tim Key have been Every Body Talks and When in Rome, both of which featured unusually extensive use of Microsoft PowerPoint for a comic act. Horne toured Roman towns of the UK with the When in Rome show in early 2006.

As a solo performer, Horne wrote and performed Birdwatching at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival and Wordwatching at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival. He signed a two-book deal with Virgin Publishing to write up both of these stories as books. The first, entitled Birdwatchingwatching, came out early in 2009. The second came out in early 2010.

On 18 January 2007, Horne became the first ever comedian to perform in Second Life for a feature on Sky News. Between 24 October 2006 and 24 October 2007 he worked alongside fellow comedian Owen Powell, in an attempt to find a person from every nationality living in London. After a year’s search, they finally managed to meet people from 189 of the UN’s 192 countries, and hence suggested there is nobody in the city from Tuvalu, Palau, or the Marshall Islands.

He was a contestant on the numbers and letters show Countdown in 2008 for Channel 4, and has been a dictionary corner guest many times on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown with his band.

Since 2010, Horne has also been performing with his band The Horne Section as the compere of comedy variety shows. Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section (2012–2014) ran for three series on BBC Radio 4, and The Horne Section Podcast has been released since 2018.

Horne, along with Tim Key and Mark Watson, created the YouTube series No More Jockeys during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown in the UK. Horne also hosts the YouTube channel Bad Golf with John Robins.

[Source: Wikipedia, 01/03/2021.]