Jimmy Carr's Real Name: Jimmy Carr

Quick answer: Jimmy Carr is known professionally and in published profiles as Jimmy Carr. Encyclopedia.com dates his birth to September 15, 1972, in London, England, and says he graduated from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (Encyclopedia.com; The Guardian).

Real name and early life

The sources used here do not independently document a longer legal form. Encyclopedia.com names his mother as Nora May Carr. The Guardian says he earned a first-class degree in social and political sciences at Cambridge, then spent a couple of unhappy years in the marketing department at Shell.

Career highlights

The Guardian says he was spotted doing stand-up in a club on Tottenham Court Road in 1999, turned professional the same year, and made his Edinburgh Festival debut in 2002 with a show titled Bare Faced Ambition. Encyclopedia.com records a 2002 Perrier Award nomination and later honors including a 2003 Time Out best stand-up award and a Royal Television Society award for best on-screen newcomer. Television work listed by Encyclopedia.com includes the Royal Variety Show (2002), Your Face or Mine (2003), Distraction (2003–04), The Friday Night Project (2005), and 8 Out of 10 Cats (2005–06), along with U.S. appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The Guardian, writing in 2006, described him as already already a well-known veteran of Channel 4 game shows, quiz shows, and chat shows, noted film work including the mockumentary Confetti, and said fellow comedian David Walliams pointed to the speed of Carr's rise after that Edinburgh debut. Encyclopedia.com also lists festival appearances at Edinburgh, Kilkenny, Montreal, and Aspen. Encyclopedia.com also lists writing work for the television comedy Meet Ricky Gervais, the 2006 book Only Joking: What's So Funny about Making People Laugh? (published in Britain as The Naked Jape), written with Lucy Greeves, and stand-up recordings including Jimmy Carr Live (2004) and Jimmy Carr: Stand Up (2005). The 2006 Guardian piece described his onstage style as permanently in wisecracking mode and noted that he was also hired for private gigs.

Name notes for searchers

Jimmy Carr is the name used in profiles and credits. Searchers looking for the host of 8 Out of 10 Cats, or for a Cambridge-educated British stand-up with a deadpan style, are usually aiming at the same person.