Justin Moorhouse

Justin Moorhouse is a comedian and one of the brightest stars working on the British comedy circuit, Manchester based Justin Moorhouse is a talented stand-up comedian, writer and actor – not to mention an award-winning radio presenter and a household name in his native North West.

Early in his career, his exuberant, larger than life personality and cheeky northern charm quickly allowed him to build a reputation on the live comedy circuit. He was name ‘City Life Comedian of the Year’ in 2000 and was second placed in the ‘BBC New Talent Awards’ the following year. He was soon supporting stand-up luminaries Jimmy Carr, Peter Kay, Dave Spikey, John Thomson and Johnny Vegas on tour before going on to play to sell out audiences across the North West with his own solo shows.

Justin’s debut solo show ‘Local Knowledge – The Smallest Tour in the World’ toured the North West in 2004 earning him a nomination for ‘Best Comedy Performance’ at the prestigious Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards alongside the likes of Bill Bailey and Ross Noble. He took to the road again in 2006 with sell-out performances of his second show ‘The Difficult Second Tour’.

2007 saw him making his hotly anticipated debut at the Edinburgh festival with his third solo show ‘Who’s The Daddy?’. With a run of sell-out shows and a clutch of 4 star reviews under his belt, Justin went on to tour the show nationally including a performance in his home town at the prestigious Manchester Opera House.

His fourth solo show ‘Justin Moorhouse’s Ever Decreasing Social Circle’ was performed in the Pleasance Courtyard during the 2009 Edinburgh festival, which was then followed a nationwide tour.

Manchester’s Key 103 snapped Justin up as a presenter back in 2003 and for the past 5 years, he’s presented his afternoon show every weekday between 1-4pm. The station was awarded Station of the Year at the 2009 prestigious Sony Radio Academy Awards and Justin’s show continues to go from strength to strength. His warmth, charisma and quick-witted spontaneity have proved a huge hit with listeners and radio industry officials alike, and he’s clocked up nominations for the highly prized ‘DJ Of The Year’ at the Sony Awards and ‘Presenter of the Year’ in the Commercial Radio Awards. His show was also nominated in the 2006 Sony Radio Academy Awards for the ‘Interactive Programme Award’ with Judges describing Justin as ‘cheeky, funny and irreverent’.

On TV screens, Justin Moorhouse comedian is perhaps most recognisable as Young Kenny in the hugely successful, award-winning ‘Phoenix Nights‘. He spent the whole of the second series with his face painted as a tiger and also made a brief appearance in the spin-of series ‘Max & Paddy’s Road To Nowhere’. Other TV appearances include ‘The Charlotte Church Show’ (Ch4), ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’ (Ch 4), ‘The Grumpy Guides’ (BBC 2) ‘Shameless’ (E4), ‘The Live Floor Show’ (BBC 2), ‘Does Doug Know’ (Ch 4), ‘Stan The Man’ (Granada), ‘Buried’ (Ch 4), ‘Massive’ (BBC Three) and ‘The World Stands Up’ and ‘The Comedy Store’ (Paramount). He has also presented a Friday night entertainment show ‘Talk of the Town’, (Granada) and ‘Twisted TV’ (Challenge). He has recently landed a lead role in the forthcoming film from the legendary Ken Loach, ‘Looking for Eric’ which is set to hit the big screen later this year.

The multi-talented Mr Moorhouse made his first foray into pantoland in 2003 being labelled ”A Panto Star” when he landed the lead comedy role in Peter Pan playing Captain Hook’s sidekick Smee at the Lowry Theatre. He’s also played the comedy lead in Beauty and the Beast and appeared alongside Coronation St stars John Savident and Suranne Jones in Snow White at the Manchester Opera House in 2006 in the lead comedy role of Muddles, once again to great critical acclaim.

Justin’s writing credits include ‘The 11 O’Clock Show’ and Channel 4s hugely popular panel show ‘8 out of 10 Cats. He also wrote a comedy drama for BBC Radio 4 entitled ‘An Insurance Inspector Calls’ which was critically acclaimed and described as ‘a poignant comedy’ (The Guardian), and ‘an entertaining comedy drama. It received ‘Pick of the Day’ in the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph and Pick of the Week in the Observer. He is also now a regular contributor to the Manchester Evening News where he writes his own weekly column every Friday. Following the success of his debut Edinburgh Festival show he has also had a pilot commissioned for Radio 4, which is set to transmit in the autumn schedule.

As his profile continues to rocket, Justin is in tremendous demand within the corporate market. He has performed at hundreds of corporate events nationwide and also had the honour of hosting the prestigious Europa Festival event in Manchester’s Exchange Square which was attended by 10,000 people. Following in the footsteps of previous hosts Peter Kay and Dave Spikey, Justin has also hosted the prestigious MEN Theatre Awards and The Manchester Awards.

Justin is now in great demand as a stand-up comedian, actor, writer, TV and radio presenter, voiceover artiste and corporate performer and is busy developing several original ideas for radio television as well as gearing up for his tour and presenting a live daily radio show. This is all a far cry away from being fired from his day job in 2000 over a misunderstanding with a parking ticket, company car, and a firm of Salford bailiffs!

A little bit more but direct from Justin this time:

• I won Celebrity Mastermind on the 30th December 2011 on BBC1 -my chosen subject was Les Dawson.

• I’m a vegetarian, dog owner, father of two and I like Batman quite a bit.

• I’m a comedian, actor, writer and radio presenter.

• I’m not very good at juggling or triple jump.

• I’ve done a couple of pantomimes and more theatrically, I’ve done two very lovely plays at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.

• I write and appear in the Radio 4 sitcom called Everyone Quite Likes Justin – it’s often repeated on Radio 4 Extra.

• I’m very good at hosting corporate events and doing after dinner stuff.

• You can ask my agent for nice letters people have written about me (I’ve got my own black suit and everything)

• I delivered a car to Sally once on Coronation Street. I was Doug, she told me to do one. I did one. Then I went back to Weatherfield for 3 episodes as Dean Upton the landlord of The Flying Horse in Summer 2014 -a role I still play (completely off screen).

  Justin Moorhouse comedian

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