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Tim Key
Key at theSundance Film Festival in 2025
Born	Timothy Key (1976-09-02)2 September 1976 (age 49) Cambridge,Cambridgeshire, England
Alma mater	University of Sheffield (BA)
Occupations	Actor comedian poet radio personality screenwriter
Years active	2001–present
Website	timkey.co.uk

Timothy Key (born 2 September 1976) is an English poet, comedian, actor and screenwriter. He has performed at theEdinburgh Festival Fringe, both as a solo act and as part of the comedy groupCowards, and playsAlan Partridge's sidekick Simon in film and television. In 2009, he won theEdinburgh Comedy Award and was nominated for theMalcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.

Key was born on 2 September 1976,^[1] inCambridge,Cambridgeshire.^[2][3] He grew up inImpington, Cambridgeshire,^[4] was educated atImpington Village College before moving on toHills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge and then theUniversity of Sheffield, where he studiedRussian. Following graduation, he returned to Cambridge and joined theCambridge Footlights, despite not being a student ofCambridge University.^[5][6] There he metTom Basden,Stefan Golaszewski, andLloyd Woolf, with whom he formed the sketch groupCowards.

Key's first appearance with the Footlights was in the stage productionFar Too Happy in 2001.^[7] The cast, which includedMark Watson andSophie Winkleman, took the show to theEdinburgh Festival Fringe and were nominated for theEdinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. Key has regularly attended Edinburgh ever since, performing in solo shows and collaborations.

In 2009, Key's solo poetry showThe Slutcracker won theEdinburgh Comedy Award and was nominated for theMalcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.^[8] He took the show to theMelbourne International Comedy Festival the following year.

Key co-starred inDaniel Kitson's playTree when it premiered in September 2013 at theRoyal Exchange, Manchester.^[9] The play then transferred toThe Old Vic in 2015.^[10] He appeared alongsidePaul Ritter andRufus Sewell inYasmina Reza'sArt atThe Old Vic, directed byMatthew Warchus, from December 2016 to February 2017.^[11]

Key's comedy showMegadate toured from 2017 to 2018. LikeThe Slutcracker, it featured Key reading "deliberately bad" poetry interspersed with black-and-white films.^[12]

In 2023, Key toured his sell-out showMulberry around the UK and Ireland,^[13] as well as a run at theSoHo Playhouse inNew York City.^[14] The theme of the show was Key's experience of theCOVID-19 lockdowns in Britain.

Key has regularly been heard onBBC Radio 4 since 2006, when the station commissionedAll Bar Luke, a series based on his earlier stage showLuke & Stella. It aired from 2006 to 2008, with a Christmas special in 2009. Key's prior radio projects includedCowards andMark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better.

In 2010, Key was heard as Duncan in the radio sitcomParty, created byTom Basden and based on the stage show of the same name.^[15] In 2012, he reunited with Basden forTim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme, a series that features Key reading poetry and Basden providing musical accompaniment, intercut with dialogue between the two. Six series of the show have been broadcast as of 2024.^[16]

Key's first album,Tim Key. With a String Quartet. On a Boat. was released by The Invisible Dot Ltd / Angular Records in November 2010. It features Key reading poetry backed by a string quartet, with interjections from Basden.

Key was a contestant on the first series ofBritain's Worst Driver and received a car but sold it after a week.^[17]

Key first appeared on television in a comic role in 2006's satirical comedyTime Trumpet, as anEastenders special effects supervisor. The next year, he appeared as himself inCharlie Brooker's Screenwipe, reading poetry. He also appeared in an episode ofSaxondale alongside futureMid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge co-starSteve Coogan.

In 2009, Key (along withMark Watson andAlex Horne) co-createdWe Need Answers forBBC Four, a comedic quiz show in which celebrities answer questions posed by question-answering text services. It was hosted by Watson, with Horne providing technical support and Key reading questions.^[18] As part of the show's bonus online content, the BBC uploaded videos of Key and Watson playingNo More Women, aparlour game they had invented several years earlier, with Horne supplying narration. The three reunited in 2020 to play the game as a trio, renaming itNo More Jockeys.

In November 2010, Key appeared as "Sidekick Simon" alongside Steve Coogan onMid Morning Matters withAlan Partridge, an online series based on Coogan's Alan Partridge character. The series was also broadcast on Sky Atlantic in 2012. Key would appear again as Simon in the 2013 filmAlan Partridge: Alpha Papa and the BBC seriesThis Time with Alan Partridge.

In 2013, Key played Greg in theE4 comedy-drama seriesGap Year. In 2014, he played Ian in theInside No. 9 episode "Sardines". His performance was praised,^[19] with one journalist calling him "an unsung hero of British comedy".^[20] The following year, he was a panellist on the first series ofTaskmaster and has been credited as a "Task Consultant" since the show's second series.

Key has also had minor roles in shows such asSkins,Plebs,Life's Too Short,Stag,Peep Show,Brassic andThe End of the F***ing World. He has also appeared on panel showsNever Mind the Buzzcocks andRichard Osman's House of Games.

In 2022, Key starred in theBBC Two comedy seriesThe Witchfinder. That year he also appeared as Ray, nemesis and old archery teammate of Paul (Jim Howick) in an episode of friend Tom Basden's BBC1 sitcom,Here We Go.

In 2023, he appeared on theGreat Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer, opening up about his experience of being diagnosed with amelanoma.^[21]

In 2024, he appeared in the last episode ofInside No. 9 as himself.^[22]

In 2025, Key starred as "Ken" inPeacock'sThe Paper, a follow up and spinoff toThe Office.^[23]

Key and Basden collaborated on a short filmThe One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island in 2007. The film won Best UK Short at the 2007Edinburgh Film Festival, was nominated for a 2008 BAFTA in the category of Best Short Film and, in 2025, was the basis for the feature length filmThe Ballad of Wallis Island. In 2012, Key collaborated with director J. van Tulleken on one of 16 short films to have won production funding through BFI Shorts. The resultant film was a black comedy entitledAnthony, starring Key and Basden, in which Key playedSanta Claus.^[24]

Key reprised his role as Sidekick Simon forSteve Coogan'sAlan Partridge filmAlpha Papa, released in August 2013. Also in 2013, he appeared in theRichard Ayoade filmThe Double. In 2019, he again starred alongside Coogan inGreed, playing the character of Sam. In 2022, he played Commissioner Harrold Scott inSee How They Run.

Key has written six books. The first,Instructions, Guidelines, Tutelage, Suggestions, Other Suggestions and Examples Etc.: An Attempted Book by Tim Key. (And Conversations / Descriptions / A Piece About a Moth), was published in 2009. The second,25 Poems, 3 Recipes and 32 Other Suggestions (An Inventory) was published in 2011. The third,The Incomplete Tim Key, was published byCanongate Books in 2011.

In 2020, Key collaborated with designer Emily Juniper to createHe Used Thought As a Wife (An Anthology of Poems and Conversations from Inside). This book, published by Utter and Press, chronicles Key's experiences duringthe UK's first COVID-19 lockdown. A sequel,Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (An Anthology of Poems and Conversations from Outside), was released in 2022.

Key released a new poetry anthology, "Chapters", in February 2024.^[25] Poetic Justice noted its humour and "subversive focus on the contemporary world".^[26]

How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge)Sidekick Simon|-

• Instructions, Guidelines, Tutelage, Suggestions, Other Suggestions and Examples Etc.: An Attempted Book By Tim Key. (And Conversations/ Descriptions/ A Piece About A Moth). The Invisible Dot Ltd, 2009.ISBN 978-0-9553703-3-5
• The Incomplete Tim Key. Canongate Books Ltd, 2011.ISBN 978-0-85786-118-4
• 25 Poems, 3 Recipes and 32 Other Suggestions (An Inventory). The Invisible Dot Ltd, 2011.ISBN 978-0-9553703-6-6
• He Used Thought As A Wife (An Anthology of Poems and Conversations from Inside.) "Utter" and Press, 2020.
• Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (An Anthology of Poems and Conversations from Outside.) "Utter" and Press, 2022.ISBN 9781916222663
• Chapters "Utter" and Press, 2023.ISBN 9781916222687
• L.A. Baby! "Utter" and Press, 2025.ISBN 1916222692

• Tim Key atIMDb

• 1976 births
• Living people
• Actors from South Cambridgeshire District
• Alumni of the University of Sheffield
• English comedy writers
• English male poets
• English stand-up comedians
• English male comedians
• Comedians from Cambridgeshire
• Male actors from Cambridgeshire
• People from Histon and Impington
• People educated at Hills Road Sixth Form College

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