Biography

Rhys Nicholson is a Multi-award winning Australian stand-up, writer, podcaster and collager.

After moving to Sydney in 2009 at the age of 18, Rhys was very enthusiastic but had limited success as a comedian until in 2012 when they won the Best Newcomer award at the Sydney Comedy Festival. For a few years Rhys quietly plodded along performing all over the place, trying to get better and not doing anything particularly special until 2016 when they were selected to perform at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala, they sold out their run, received a nomination for the illustrious Melbourne Comedy Festival Award for Best Show award for best show and went on to sell out shows throughout Australia and the UK. Also that year, to highlight the importance of marriage equality in Australia, Rhys publicly married lesbian and fellow comedian Zoe Coombs Marr at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Zoe won the award for best show. Rhys is fine with that.

With an enormous passion for performing stand up, their live work continues to receive awards and accolades around the world. Within two years they were nominated for an Aria Award for best Comedy Album, twice nominated for a The Helpmann Award for best Comedy Show and in 2018 they won the New Zealand Comedy Festival Best Show award. Alongside a booming stand-up career, Nicholson is fast becoming a favourite across our small screens too. With a whole bunch of TV credits in Australia including various acting roles, panels shows, a documentary and an hour stand up special commissioned by ABCTV. In 2018 Rhys was invited to film yet another of their shows for the the BBC making is UK TV debut at the prestigious BBC Broadcasting House in London. Later that year they would go on perform in the Comedy Central UK smash hit Roast Battle. Rhys lost and is fine with that. Then early 2019 the inconceivable happened and Rhys was hand picked to be one of three opening acts for Conan O'Brien during his Australian tour. Then a couple months later they were invited to Los Angeles where they made their USA television debut with a stand up spot on the Conan Show. Conan hugged Rhys. They were fine with it.

Never happy to sit still for very long, Nicholson is currently splitting their time between Australia, America and the UK where they have a number of exciting bookings and projects in development.