Phil Ellis

Phil Ellis (born 1982^[1][2]) is an English stand-up comedian from Preston, Lancashire.^[3] In 2023, his Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Phil Ellis's Excellent Comedy Show won the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality,^[4] and was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award.^[5] He will be a contestant in the 20th series of Taskmaster.^[6]

Phil Ellis
Born	1982 (age 42–43) Preston, England
Occupation	Stand-up comedian
Years active	2008–present

Career

Ellis was born in Preston, Lancashire. His interest in comedy began as a child when he would ask his mother for comedy VHS tapes which she would buy from the Asda she worked at as she had an employee discount.^[7] He watched shows like Bottom and The Young Ones, The League of Gentlemen and Red Dwarf and comedians such as Rik Mayall, Bob Mortimer, Sean Lock and Lee Mack are some of his influences.^[7][8] He went to the University of Staffordshire with a level three degree in media and production and worked at an airbag factory.^[7][8]

Ellis's TV appearances include The Russell Howard Hour, Drunk History (UK), Roast Battle, The Tez O'Clock Show, and Redknapp's Big Night Out.^[9] Ellis's wrote and starred in three series of his own BBC Radio 4 show, Phil Ellis is Trying,^[10] and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe every year since 2013.^[11] He won the Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel prize in 2014 for Funz and Gamez, a children's game show with adult jokes.^[12] In his shows he is known for making up lies about his personal life, for example in his 2013 show Phil Ellis: Unplanned Orphan, one of the main premises of the show was that his parents told him at age thirty that he was adopted and in another more recent show spoke about his two children, when in reality neither are these things are true as he isn't adopted and doesn't even have children.^[13]

In 2023, his Edinburgh Fringe show Phil Ellis's Excellent Comedy Show won the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality and was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award.^[4] Ellis was announced as a contestant of the 20th series of Taskmaster in 2025 along with Ania Magliano, Maisie Adam, Reece Shearsmith and Sanjeev Bhaskar.^[14]

Reception

Ellis' shows at the Edinburgh Fringe have received many positive reviews. He was described by The Guardian as "a helter-skelter hour of fun".^[15] Broadway Baby as "one of the finest and funniest comedians in the UK today" in 2023 and The Skinny called him a "conductor of chaos" in a 2024 review.^[16][17]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Note
2010	Phil's III	Writer	[18]
2012	The Tape Face Tapes	Various	Television movie[18]
2015	BBC Comedy Feeds	Writer and associate producer	One episode[18]
2016	Drunk History	Phil	One episode[18]
2017	Born Silly	Writer	[18]
2018	Life Lessons	Phil	One episode[18]
2020	There She Goes	Captain Banana Crackers	One episode[18]
2021	Back Chat	Hans	One episode, voice only[18]
2025	Taskmaster	Himself	Upcoming release/ set to air in late 2025[6][14]

Edinburgh fringe shows

• 2008 — Phil Ellis: Why I Bathe In Ajax^[19][20]
• 2011 — Comx^[19][21]
• 2013 — Phil Ellis: Unplanned Orphan^[19][22]
• 2014 — Funz And Gamez^[19][23]
• 2015 — Funz And Gamez Tooz^[19][24]
• 2016 — Phil Ellis Is Alone Together (But Mostly Alone)^[19][25]
• 2017 — Phil Ellis Has Been On Ice^[19][26]
• 2018 — Phil Ellis Is Ready For The Big Time^[19][27]
• 2019 — Phil Ellis: An Revoir^[19][28]
• 2022 — Phil Ellis: Hedgehog^[19][29]
• 2023 — Phil Ellis's Excellent Comedy Show^[19][30]
• 2024 — Phil Ellis: Come On And Take The Rest Of Me^[19][31]
• 2025 — Phil Ellis: Soppy Stern^[19][32]