John William Oliver was born on 23 April 1977 and is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host.
66 Facts About John Oliver
2.
John Oliver came to wider attention for his work in the United States on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its senior British correspondent from 2006 to 2013.
3.
John Oliver won three Primetime Emmy Awards for writing for The Daily Show and was the show's guest host for an eight-week period in 2013.
4.
John Oliver has acted on television, most notably in a recurring role as Professor Ian Duncan on the NBC sitcom Community, and in films, notably voice-over work in The Smurfs, The Smurfs 2, and the 2019 remake of The Lion King.
5.
John Oliver has received widespread critical and popular recognition for his work on the series, whose influence over US culture, legislation, and policymaking has been dubbed the "John Oliver effect".
6.
John Oliver's work has been described as journalism or investigative journalism, a description John Oliver rejects.
7.
John Oliver was born on 23 April 1977 in Birmingham, England, to Carole and Jim John Oliver.
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John Oliver's father, from the Wirral Peninsula, was both a school headmaster and social worker, and his mother, from Liverpool, was a music teacher.
9.
John Oliver was educated in Bedford at the Mark Rutherford School, and learned to play the viola as a child.
10.
In 1998, John Oliver graduated from Cambridge with a degree in English.
11.
Additionally, John Oliver made appearances on British television as a panellist on the satirical news quiz Mock the Week.
12.
John Oliver was a frequent guest on the first two series in 2005 and 2006, appearing in seven out of eleven episodes.
13.
In 2001, John Oliver appeared as a bank manager in season two of People Like Us.
14.
John Oliver revealed in a later Seth Meyers appearance that one of his first paying jobs was writing for the British morning show The Big Breakfast.
15.
John Oliver frequently worked with other members of the Chocolate Milk Gang, a group of comedians who collaborated and performed with one another, including Daniel Kitson, Russell Howard, David O'Doherty, and Alun Cochrane.
16.
John Oliver performed his debut solo show at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and returned in 2003.
17.
From 2002 to 2003, John Oliver worked on the BBC 3 comedy series The State We're In, along with Anita Rani, Jon Holmes, and Robin Ince.
18.
In 2003, John Oliver manned the "results desk" on an election night episode of Armando Iannucci's satirical show Gash on Channel 4.
19.
In 2004, John Oliver wrote and performed in the satirical radio programme The Department on BBC Radio 4, with frequent comedy partner Andy Zaltzman and Chris Addison.
20.
John Oliver frequently appeared on the BBC Radio 5 Live sports show Fighting Talk.
21.
John Oliver joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as its Senior British Correspondent in July 2006.
22.
John Oliver 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.
23.
John Oliver received Emmy Awards for outstanding writing on The Daily Show in 2009,2011, and 2012.
24.
In 2007, John Oliver wrote and presented a BBC America campaign to have viewers use subtitles.
25.
From October 2007 to May 2015, John Oliver co-hosted The Bugle, a weekly satirical comedy podcast, with Andy Zaltzman.
26.
John Oliver executive-produced the show along with Avalon Television's Richard Allen-Turner, David Martin, James Taylor and Jon Thoday.
27.
John Oliver had a recurring role on the NBC comedy Community as psychology professor Ian Duncan.
28.
John Oliver did not appear in the third and fourth seasons, but returned in season five, appearing in seven of its thirteen episodes.
29.
John Oliver later voiced Vanity Smurf in The Smurfs film and its sequel.
30.
John Oliver performed various roles in the 2009 Comedy Central series Important Things with Demetri Martin.
31.
In 2009, John Oliver made a cameo appearance as the actor Rip Torn in the music video for The Fiery Furnaces' single "Even in the Rain", which is based on the story of the making of the film Easy Rider.
32.
John Oliver's performance received positive reviews, with some critics suggesting that he should eventually succeed Stewart as the host, or receive his own show.
33.
CBS discussed the possibility of John Oliver replacing Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show.
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John Oliver says he has full creative freedom, including free rein to criticise corporations, given HBO's ad-free subscription model.
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John 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.
36.
In 2019, John Oliver voiced porcupine Steve in the CGI animated film Wonder Park and hornbill Zazu in the remake of Disney's The Lion King.
37.
In 2018, John Oliver began working as an executive producer for Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas until its cancellation in June 2019.
38.
John Oliver has said that among his comedic influences are Armando Iannucci, David Letterman, Monty Python, Peter Cook, Richard Pryor, and Jon Stewart.
39.
John Oliver describes his own accent as a "mongrel" of Brummie, Scouse, and Bedford influences.
40.
John Oliver documented problems attributed to internet service providers and argued that the Federal Communications Commission could resolve these concerns with upcoming changes to internet regulation.
41.
John Oliver then encouraged viewers to submit public comments through the FCC's website.
42.
John Oliver maintains that he is not a journalist, but reporters have argued that his show does engage in journalism.
43.
The Peabody Awards honoured John Oliver, saying his program engages in "investigative reports that 'real' news programs would do well to emulate".
44.
John 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.
45.
John Oliver found that at the state level, the Miss Alabama Pageant claimed that it had provided $2,592,000 in scholarships to Troy University despite not actually distributing any such scholarships.
46.
John Oliver has 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.
47.
The next week, John Oliver showed off the large quantity of unsolicited donations posted to him, which included $70,000 in cash, a large cheque, and other gifts.
48.
In 2018 on Last Week Tonight, John 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 with the rabbit Marlon Bundo in a gay relationship.
49.
John Oliver has said that they met at the 2008 Republican National Convention; he was doing a piece for The Daily Show and Norley was campaigning with Vets for Freedom.
50.
John Oliver was one of the many writers on the picket lines during the Writers' Guild strike, which brought The Daily Show to a halt; he appeared on the show upon its resuming production on 7 January 2008.
51.
John Oliver was naturalized as a US citizen on 13 December 2019.
52.
Since moving to the United States, John Oliver has been a fan of the New York Mets.
53.
John Oliver has said that being a New York Yankees fan would be the "wrong thing to do morally".
54.
John Oliver purchased the debt for $60,000 and forgave it on his show on 4 June 2016.
55.
John Oliver's 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.
56.
John Oliver has been 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".
57.
John Oliver found it "sad" to consider that his children with British citizenship would not experience the benefits of the EU.
58.
John Oliver has been highly critical of the British Conservative Party and Boris Johnson in particular.
59.
John Oliver has been in favour of Britain becoming a Republic.
60.
John Oliver 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".
61.
Contrarily, Politico argued that John Oliver criticised liberal politicians as much as those on the right.
62.
John Oliver has been an advocate for LGBT rights, first discussing the issue on Last Week Tonight in a 2014 segment about LGBT rights in Uganda.
63.
John Oliver had previously bought several movie props screen-used by Crowe in an auction, including his jockstrap from the movie Cinderella Man, which he sent to the last Alaskan Blockbuster Video store for exhibition.
64.
Crowe then donated the proceeds from the auction towards the establishment of the Chlamydia Ward named after John Oliver, calling it "a cool way" to honour him.
65.
John Oliver has won seventeen Emmy Awards, seven Writers Guild of America Awards, one Grammy Award, one Dorian Award, and one Critics' Choice Real TV Award.
66.
John Oliver won three Primetime Emmys, one Grammy, and one WGA Award for his work on The Daily Show, and fourteen Primetime Emmys and six WGA Awards for Last Week Tonight.