Award shared for the first time in 20 years

The Chortle Student Comedy Award has crowned joint winners for the first time in its 20-year history.

Warwick University’s Fred Carver  and Anna Rae George, who is studying a PhD in Oxford, shared the prize following the final at the Edinburgh Fringe last night.

 Kwesi Sekyi, a 26-year-old marketing student at King’s College London, originally from Barnet, was named runner-up.

Chortle editor Steve Bennett said: ‘We’ve had so many brilliant comedians come through this competition, but this is the first time judges couldn’t separate two finalists with very different styles – Anna’s analytical approach versus Fred’s absurdity – so we decided they should share the title. Guess I’ll have to get a second trophy made!’

George, a 29-year-old originally from Kansas, secured her place in the final –for the second consecutive year – following a public vote. She put her research into social data science to good use, speaking about how she analysed the content of Chortle and articles written by Bennett to figure out her best chances of winning.

Originally from Halifax, 23-year-old Carver has just finished a biomedical systems engineering degree. He performed a surreal story taking in Banksy artwork on the Moon, TikTok algorithms and a flirtatious driving instructor.

The other finalists competing in the Pleasance  were  Anoushay Okhai, Kathy Rivett, Robert Mac an Tuile and Sofia Lambis.

We’ll have clips from the final later, and it is also being streamed on NextUp tonight.

Previous winners and finalists have included Joe Lycett, Phil Wang, Ed Gamble, Joe Kent-Walters, Jamali Maddix,Chris Ramsey, Richard Gadd, Laura Lexx, Iain Stirling, Catriona Dowden, Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal.

Published: 12 Aug 2025