Armando Iannucci


1963 -

Comedy writer, producer and satirist. Born in Glasgow into a Scottish-Italian family, Iannucci was educated at St. Aloysius' College, the University of Glasgow, and University College, Oxford. He abandoned his graduate studies in Oxford to pursue comedy. He began his broadcasting career with Radio Scotland in Glasgow, but soon moved to London where he produced shows such as The Mary Whitehouse Experience for BBC Radio 1 (1990-92).

His prodigious output includes writing and producing On The Hour (1991-92) for radio, together with Knowing Me, Knowing You (1994), The Day Today (1994) and the highly acclaimed satirical political comedy, The Thick of It for television (2005). Perhaps most memorable was I'm Alan Partridge (1997 - 2002) for BBC television, which he wrote and directed. Other work has included the Saturday Night Armistice (which became the Friday Night Armistice; 1995-99) for BBC2, The Armando Iannucci Shows for Channel 4, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive for BBC Radio 4 and the Time Trumpet (2006), a spoof documentary on BBC2.

Iannucci was appointed Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at the University of Oxford (2005-06). He has been the recipient of two Sony Radio Awards and three British Comedy Awards, and shared a Writers' Guild award in 1992 for On the Hour. He was honoured with an OBE in 2012.


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