Find Live comedy

Live Comedy in London |
Manchester | Scotland

Joe Lycett

Date of birth: 05-07-1988

Joe Lycett began performing stand-up whole studying drama and English at the University of Manchester.

His first gig was at the Comedy Store in Manchester in February 2008, and the following year he won the Chortle Student Comedy Award. In 2010, he was named best newcomer in the Chortle Awards, and in 2012 was nominated for the Best Newcomer award at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for Some Lycett Hot.

On TV, Lycett has appeared on programmes including Live at the Apollo, Would I Lie to You?, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Taskmaster and The Great British Bake Off celebrity specials. From 2019 to 2021 he presented The Great British Sewing Bee, taking over from Claudia Winkleman

He also created and presented the consumer affairs series Joe Lycett's Got Your Back, which aired from 2019 to 2024, the same year he launched the late-night entertainment programme Late Night Lycett.

Alongside his comedy and broadcasting work, Lycett has published books and undertaken public campaigns on consumer, sociald environmental issues.

Joe Lycett: It's so naff to be a comedian

Comic says he's embarrassed by his job

comedy Joe Lycett says that having a child made him embarrassed to be a ‘naff’ comedian.

The comic revealed that six months after becoming a father in 2024, ‘I had a real identity crisis and went through everything in my head.

'I think it's because you're awake at such weird times trying to get him asleep and all those things where you just... f it's a lot of what appears like madness and could be madness.

'I just reflected on loads of things in my career and just was a bit embarrassed by it all and a bit like, you know, it's so naff to be a comedian. I didn't really have a long period of reflection on what I'd done. [With paternity leave], we've got the time and space to process it all.'

Speaking on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast, the 38-year-old added: ‘Lots of people were surprised when I had a child with a woman because they were like, "but you're the gay man".

'You know, I've never said that I'm gay because I've never been gay. But because I'm camp and I, you know, do innuendo and all those sorts of things that people have this idea of what that is.

'On stage, I kind of played on these things because they're funny ultimately. But how much of that has filtered into what I actually am? And is the stage persona the same as me? And, you know, these things oscillate a lot.’

Lycett has protected the identity of his son’s mother, explaining that the nature of her job means ‘she can’t be in the public eye'.

He was speaking to promote The Lycett Arms, which airs live on Channel 4 on Friday nights at 10pm, starting September 4

Published: 25 Aug 2026