Stephen K. Amos

Stephen Kehinde Amos (born 3 December 1967) is a British stand-up comedian and television personality.

A regular on the international comedy circuit, he is known for including his audience members during his shows.

He appeared in The Bill ('Compliments of the Service') in 1993.

He made a guest appearance as Jimi Hendrix on the third episode of the BBC Three show, Snuff Box.

He has also appeared in Rich Hall's Cattle Drive, EastEnders, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle and as a featured performer on BBC One's Live at the Apollo after Dara Ó Briain and before Frankie Boyle.

Amos has performed stand up at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every year since 2003, after making his début in 2001.

He began his career as a compere at the Big Fish comedy clubs in South London, and has been nominated for Chortle's Best Compere Award three times in 2004, 2007 and 2008.

During the 2006 Fringe, he performed the revealing solo show All of Me, in which he publicly acknowledged his own homosexuality to his audience for the first time.

He hosted a chat show on weekends (in addition to his own show), performed as a guest at various extra festival shows, such as Spank!, and performed daily in Stewart Lee's production of Eric Bogosian's play Talk Radio.

Away from the fringe, Amos is a regular performer at The Comedy Store, London, featuring on the bill several evenings each month, as well as various other venues around central London.

Amos appeared in the winning team at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival's Great Debate in 2006, 2007, and 2008 for the negative team, and in 2009 for the affirmative team.

In May 2007, he appeared at the New Zealand International Comedy festival where he won the award for Best International Comedian.

He performed at the 2007 Class Clowns State Final in South Australia.

In March 2007, his documentary on homophobia in the black British community and Jamaica, Batty Man, was broadcast by Channel 4.

It won a Royal Television Society Award and was nominated for a BAFTA.

Amos has the distinction of being one of the few stand-up comics chosen to appear at the 2007 Royal Variety Performance.

In December 2007, he hosted a documentary, Penis Envy, for the free United Kingdom digital television channel Virgin1, in which he explored men's ongoing insecurities with penis size with the help of actors from Puppetry of the Penis, naked rugby players and the men willing to experiment with apparent penis enlarging "treatments".

On a related note, he gently mocks political correctness, in one of his favourite recurring jokes referring to his own penis size: "some stereotypes I can live with!"

While in Australia for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Amos often appears on Australian television shows such as the improvisational Thank God You're Here; the music-based panel game show Spicks and Specks; and satirical news based comedy quiz show Good News Week.

During the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, he embarked on a United Kingdom tour of his show Find the Funny.

Amos made an appearance on the gala/comedy gig We Are Most Amused, an ITV1 televised production on 15 November 2008, in celebration of The Prince of Wales' 60th Birthday.

The event took place in the New Wimbledon Theatre.

In the winter of 2009 and 2010, he sold out his second national tour The Feelgood Factor.

His debut DVD was released in November 2009 entitled Find The Funny – Live.

In 2009, Stephen appeared on Soccer AM, and is a fan of West Ham United.

In 2009, Stephen also appeared on an edition of Children in Need of Mastermind, answering questions on the band Five Star.

His second DVD was released in November 2010 entitled The Feelgood Factor.

Amos hosted, and performed a short set on the main stage at London's Gay Pride parade on 3 June 2010.

Amos performed on the alternative stage at Reading Festival on 27 August 2010, and the Leeds Festival on 28 August 2010.

He received a standing ovation for both performances.

In December 2010, Amos appeared on Live at the Apollo as host and compere.

In March 2010, Amos appeared with the England rugby squad playing Nelson Mandela, in a comedy sketch for the BBC's Sport Relief.

In January 2010, he was a celebrity guest team captain on What Do Kids Know? along with Rufus Hound, Joe Swash and Sara Cox on Watch.

Stephen guest appeared in Series 2, Episode 7 of the BBC Three comedy, Coming of Age and as a guest contributor on several episodes of This Week.

In 2010, Amos's own show was launched, a combination of stand up, sketches, and guest performers (who for the most part had not fully broken into television comedy), simply entitled The Stephen K Amos Show.

In 2012 and 2013, he performed his Laughter Is My Agenda tour.

As an actor, he performed in both the Edinburgh Fringe and London run of a version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

In March 2017, Amos featured on the 339th episode of the podcast based in Melbourne, The Little Dum Dum Club, which was recorded live at the European Bier Cafe in Melbourne's CBD.

In 2022, Amos appeared in the West End cast of My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum, playing Alfred P Doolittle.

In the United Kingdom, Amos has appeared as a guest on panel shows such as Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week, QI, The Wright Stuff and And Then You Die.