John Oliver
British and American comedian (born 1977)
For other people named John Oliver, see John Oliver (disambiguation). Not to be confused with John Olver.
John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British and American comedian who hosts Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO. He started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom and came to wider attention for his work in the United States as the 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 became its 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 on the radio series Political Animal and The Department. From 2010 to 2013, he hosted the stand-up series John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show on Comedy Central. His acting roles include Ian Duncan on the NBC sitcom Community and voice work in the animated films The Smurfs (2011), The Smurfs 2 (2013), and The Lion King remake (2019).
Quick Facts Born, Medium ...
As the host of Last Week Tonight since 2014, Oliver has received widespread critical and popular recognition for the series, including winning sixteen Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards. The show's influence over US culture, legislation, and policymaking has been dubbed the "John Oliver effect", and he was included in the 2015 Time 100, where he was described as a "comedic agent of change [...] powerful because he isn't afraid to tackle important issues thoughtfully, without fear or apology".[1] His work has been described as journalism or investigative journalism, labels that he rejects. He became an American citizen in 2019.[2]
Personal life
Early life and education
John William Oliver[3] was born in the Birmingham suburb of Erdington on 23 April 1977,[4][5][6] the son of music teacher Carole and school headmaster and social worker Jim Oliver. His mother is from Liverpool, while his father comes from the Wirral. He has a younger sister who lives in Australia.[7] His uncle was the composer Stephen Oliver.[8] He grew up in Bedford, where he attended the Mark Rutherford School and learned to play the viola.[8][9][10] He was raised Anglican, but later told interviewer Terry Gross that he lapsed at the age of 12 after the death of a school friend and an uncle, followed by a feeling of receiving no useful answers from the church.[10][11] In the mid-to-late 1990s, he studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Footlights.[3] His Footlights contemporaries included comedians David Mitchell and Richard Ayoade, and he became the club's vice president in 1997.[3][12][13] He and Footlights president Ayoade wrote and performed in several productions together, appearing in both Footlights' 1997 and 1998 touring shows: Emotional Baggage (directed by Matthew Holness) and Between a Rock and a Hard Place (directed by Cal McCrystal).[14] In 1998, Oliver graduated with a degree in English.[15][16]
Since childhood, he has been a fan of Liverpool F.C., noting in interviews that "my mum's family are from Knotty Ash and my dad's family are from the Wirral, so supporting Liverpool was very much not a choice".[17]
Adult life and independence
Photo of Oliver, wearing a dark suit jacket, and Norley, who is wearing a black suit jacket, standing in front of a press backdrop. Oliver has his arm around Norley.
Oliver with Norley in 2016
Oliver met Kate Norley, an Iraq War veteran who served as a medic in the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, at the 2008 Republican National Convention; he was reporting for The Daily Show and she was campaigning with Vets for Freedom. She and other veterans hid Oliver, the other correspondents, and the camera crew from security.[18] The two were married in October 2011 and reside in New York City.[19][20] They have two sons, one born prematurely in 2015 and the other born in 2018.[21] Oliver occasionally wears a 1st Cavalry Division lapel pin in honour of Norley.[22]
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.[2][23][24] During the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, which temporarily stopped production of The Daily Show, Oliver participated in picketing protests;[25] 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.[26]
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".[27] Oliver says he was given a scare while 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" before following 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.[24] Oliver was naturalized as a US citizen on 13 December 2019.[2][23] Since moving to the United States, he has been a fan of the New York Mets.[28] He has said that being a New York Yankees fan would be the "wrong thing to do morally".[29]
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.[30]
