56 Facts About Richard Ayoade

1.

Richard Ellef Ayoade is a British comedian, actor, broadcaster, and filmmaker.

2.

Richard Ayoade played the role of socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd, for which he won the 2014 BAFTA for Best Male Comedy Performance.

3.

From 1998 to 1999, Ayoade was the president of the Footlights club whilst a student at the University of Cambridge.

4.

Richard Ayoade appeared in the comedy shows The Mighty Boosh and Nathan Barley.

5.

Richard Ayoade co-starred in the American science fiction comedy film The Watch and his second film as a writer and director, the black comedy The Double, drew inspiration from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella of the same title.

6.

Richard Ayoade presented the factual shows Gadget Man, its spin-off Travel Man, and the revival of The Crystal Maze.

7.

Richard Ayoade is currently writing two children's books: The Book That No One Wanted to Read and a picture book called The Fairy Tale Fan Club.

8.

Richard Ellef Ayoade was born in Hammersmith, London on 23 May 1977, the son of a Norwegian mother and Nigerian father.

9.

Richard Ayoade studied at the independent St Joseph's College in Ipswich, where he recalls being "obsessed" with JD Salinger's book The Catcher in the Rye.

10.

Richard Ayoade was so obsessed with the book that he started to dress like its protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

11.

From 1995 to 1998, Richard Ayoade studied law at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he won the Martin Steele Prize for play production and was president of the amateur theatrical club Footlights.

12.

Richard Ayoade says that his parents would not approve of studies considered to be of the "Regency era", adding that "a non-vocational degree seemed such an outlandish indulgence".

13.

Richard Ayoade said that his degree in law was no longer a viable "fallback" for him and that he would need to "go back to square one".

14.

Richard Ayoade co-wrote the stage show Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight with Matthew Holness, whom he met at the Footlights, appearing in the show with Holness at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000 where it was nominated for a Perrier Award.

15.

Richard Ayoade wrote, directed and appeared in the series, which saw Marenghi and Learner star in a 1980s television drama that was never broadcast.

16.

Richard Ayoade was a writer on the sketch show Bruiser in 2000, which starred former Footlights president David Mitchell and Robert Webb, and featured Holness.

17.

Richard Ayoade was featured in a bit-part as a reporter in the HBO television film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.

18.

Richard Ayoade was originally selected to play the role of dangerous villain Dixon Bainbridge.

19.

Richard Ayoade later returned in the second series in 2005, to play the part of the belligerent shaman Saboo.

20.

Richard Ayoade continued his association with The Mighty Boosh in the third series, reprising his role and acting as script editor.

21.

Richard Ayoade appeared in the satirical comedy series Time Trumpet in 2006, which is set in the year 2031 and saw Richard Ayoade and other celebrities reminiscing about the year 2007 onwards.

22.

In February 2006, Richard Ayoade began playing technically brilliant, but socially awkward, IT technician Maurice Moss in the sitcom The IT Crowd on Channel 4, appearing with Chris O'Dowd, Katherine Parkinson, Chris Morris, and later on, Matt Berry.

23.

In 2008, Richard Ayoade won the award for an outstanding actor in a television comedy series at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival for his performance.

24.

In 2009, Richard Ayoade co-starred with Joel McHale in the pilot for an American version of The IT Crowd, reprising his role with the same appearance and personality; however, no series was commissioned, and the pilot never aired.

25.

The original The IT Crowd ran for four seasons until 2010, with a special airing in 2013, for which Richard Ayoade won a BAFTA for Best Male Comedy Performance.

26.

Richard Ayoade has frequently appeared as a panellist on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, often with Noel Fielding, making his first appearance on The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz in 2007, which marked Channel 4's 25th anniversary.

27.

In 2008, Richard Ayoade directed the music videos for two Vampire Weekend singles: "Oxford Comma", filmed in one long take, and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa".

28.

Richard Ayoade directed a live Arctic Monkeys DVD, At the Apollo, recorded at the Manchester Apollo on super 16mm film.

29.

Richard Ayoade was featured in Paul King's 2009 film Bunny and the Bull, playing an extremely boring museum tour guide.

30.

In 2010, Richard Ayoade made his debut directorial feature, Submarine, a coming-of-age comedy-drama he adapted from Joe Dunthorne's 2008 novel of the same name.

31.

Richard Ayoade was nominated for a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at the 65th British Academy Film Awards.

32.

In 2011, Richard Ayoade directed the Community episode "Critical Film Studies" in the comedy show's second season.

33.

Richard Ayoade then directed a performance of comedian Tommy Tiernan's world stand-up tour, Crooked Man, which was released in November 2011.

34.

Richard Ayoade provided his voice to the main cast of Channel 4's ill-received animated sitcom Full English, which aired for just five episodes in 2012 before being cancelled.

35.

Richard Ayoade starred opposite Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill in the science fiction comedy The Watch as a neighbourhood watch group that uncovers alien forces threatening the world.

36.

The film was not well received by critics, although Richard Ayoade's performance was praised.

37.

Also in 2012, Richard Ayoade began voicing Todd Lagoona, an anthropomorphic hammerhead shark who was a recurring character in Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy.

38.

From 2013 to 2014, Richard Ayoade voiced Templeton, the class nerd, in the CBBC animated series Strange Hill High.

39.

Richard Ayoade replaced Stephen Fry as presenter in the second series of Channel 4's Gadget Man in September 2013, and presented a third and fourth season.

40.

The series featured Richard Ayoade presenting a variety of innovative products and gadgets.

41.

Richard Ayoade was the host of the spin-off series Travel Man, where he spent 48 hours in a different location each episode with a celebrity guest.

42.

Also in 2013, Richard Ayoade read Roald Dahl's children book The Twits for Penguin Audio's audiobook collection and Virgin Media launched an advertising campaign starring the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt featuring the voice of Richard Ayoade.

43.

Richard Ayoade provided the voice-over for Apple's iPhone 6 UK campaign with Chris O'Dowd in 2014.

44.

Richard Ayoade appears on Channel 4's 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, usually at least once per season.

45.

Richard Ayoade voiced a villainous snowman in several episodes of the 2015 reboot of the animated series Danger Mouse.

46.

Richard Ayoade took over as host of the Channel 4 game show The Crystal Maze in 2017, following the success of a celebrity charity special revival hosted by Stephen Merchant.

47.

Richard Ayoade made a cameo appearance in the comedy sequel Paddington 2 as a forensic investigator in 2017 and was amongst the voice cast for Vampire Weekend Ezra Koenig's animated series Neo Yokio in the same year.

48.

Richard Ayoade starred in an advertisement for HSBC in 2018, which addressed other countries' cultural impact on the United Kingdom ahead of Brexit; appearing in four more in the following years Richard Ayoade voiced Treebor, a Stone Age caveman, in the Aardman Animations stop-motion comedy Early Man.

49.

Richard Ayoade returned to music video directing in 2018, helming the science fiction-inspired video for The Breeders song "Spacewoman".

50.

Richard Ayoade was featured in a supporting role as a pompous artist in both parts of Joanna Hogg's two-part drama The Souvenir.

51.

Richard Ayoade provided voice work for the Star Wars Disney+ series The Mandalorian where he voiced the droid Zero in a recurring role.

52.

Richard Ayoade lent his voice for the animated adult fantasy sitcom Disenchantment on Netflix where he voiced the character Alva Gunderson.

53.

Richard Ayoade on Top, his third book published by Faber and Faber, is a tongue-in-cheek ode to the critically maligned romantic comedy View from the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

54.

Richard Ayoade returned to host the 2021 and 2022 ceremonies.

55.

Richard Ayoade is a fan of French New Wave cinema and said in an interview with The Guardian that Louis Malle's Zazie dans le Metro was the film that sparked his interest in filmmaking.

56.

In 2007, Richard Ayoade married Lydia Fox, a member of the Fox family of actors.