Who is Alex Horne?
Alexander James Jeffery Horne (born 10 September 1978) is a British comedian. Horne is the creator of the BAFTA award-winning TV series Taskmaster, in which he also performs as the Taskmaster’s assistant.
He is the host and bandleader of The Horne Section, a comedic band. Horne runs the band’s eponymous podcast and has appeared with them on their music variety show on BBC Radio 4 and TV channel Dave.
Alex Horne Biography, Wiki
Alexander James Jeffery Horne (born 10 September 1978 in Petworth, West Sussex) is a British comedian. Horne is the creator of Taskmaster, a comedy panel show in which he is the assistant to “Taskmaster” Greg Davies, who judges comedians on various absurd tasks they are asked to perform. He is also the host of “The Horne Section”, a live music variety show which has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Dave.
Horne was educated at Lancing College (Fields House, 1991–1996) and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied classics, graduating in 2001. While at Cambridge he was a member of the Footlights.
He made his first appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000 with his show, “How To Avoid Huge Ships”. His 2003 Edinburgh show, “Making Fish Laugh” was nominated for a Perrier newcomer award. In 2004 he won a Chortle Award for Best Breakthrough Act.
His shows with Tim Key have been “Every Body Talks” and “When in Rome”, both of which featured unusually extensive use of Microsoft PowerPoint for a comic act. Horne toured Roman towns of the UK with the “When in Rome” show in early 2006.
Alex Horne Career
As a solo performer, Horne wrote and performed “Birdwatching” at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival and “Wordwatching” at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival. He signed a two-book deal with Virgin Publishing to write up both of these stories as books. The first, entitled Birdwatchingwatching, came out early in 2009. The second came out in early 2010.
On 18 January 2007, Horne became the first-ever comedian to perform in Second Life for a feature on Sky News. Between 24 October 2006 and 24 October 2007 he worked alongside fellow comedian Owen Powell, in an attempt to find a person from every nationality living in London.
After a year’s search, they finally managed to meet people from 189 of the UN’s 192 countries, and hence suggested there is nobody in the city from Tuvalu, Palau, or the Marshall Islands.
He was a contestant on the numbers and letters show Countdown in 2008 for Channel 4, and has been a dictionary corner guest many times on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown with his band.
Horne appeared as a contestant on Countdown in August 2008, winning three matches before being defeated. He also won the inaugural Comedians’ Countdown Competition held at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the same month, beating Mark Watson and Stephen Grant to lift the trophy.
Since 2010, Horne has also been performing with his band The Horne Section as the compere of comedy variety shows. “Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section” (2012-14) ran for three series on BBC Radio 4, and “The Horne Section Podcast” is currently streaming its fourth series since 2018.
In 2011, Horne appeared on BBC One’s Celebrity Mastermind. His specialist subject was the comedian Ken Dodd. He finished in 2nd place with a score of 25.
On 26 November 2012, Horne chaired Never Mind the Buzzcocks on BBC Two. His ‘Horne Section’ band performed behind him at various points during the quiz and performed songs about guests Louis Smith, Josh Widdicombe, and Paloma Faith.
Alex Horne Wife
Horne is married to former BBC business journalist Rachel Horne who now works on the Chris Evans breakfast show at Virgin Radio, and the couple has three sons.
He is a birdwatcher, which he describes as the perfect activity “for someone who likes sport but is getting too old to play, likes the outdoors and is slightly anal”. He is a supporter of Liverpool F.C.