THE WINNERS OF THE 2026 EDINBURGH COMEDY AWARDS ARE CHRIS CANTRILL AND MARTY GLEESON
- Cantrill’s win for Best Comedy Show comes on his fourth nomination and after his comedy partner in The Delightful Sausage, Amy Gledhill, won the top prize in 2024
- Winners announced at Awards Presentation hosted by 2016 Best Comedy Show winner Richard Gadd and 2025 Best Newcomer winner Ayoade Bamgboye and attended by previous winners and nominees including Amy Gledhill, Hannah Gadsby, Joe Kent-Walters, John Tothill, Molly McGuinness, Abby Wambaugh and Emmanuel Sonubi
Today, the winners of this year’s ‘Oscars of Comedy’ were announced at the 46thEdinburgh Comedy Awards, presented by Richard Gadd (winner of Best Comedy Show 2016, Baby Reindeer, Half Man) and Ayoade Bamgboye (winner of Best Newcomer 2025, SNL UK). The longest-running and most prestigious accolades in the world of comedy, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards have discovered and nurtured generations of comedic talent since their inception in 1981 and continue to launch or turbo-charge the careers of comedians from around the world.
The 2026 winners are:
- The Audible Best Comedy Show:
- Chris Cantrill: Rewilding
- The Taffner Family Best Newcomer Award:
- Marty Gleeson: Dog Ear
- The Audible Panel Prize:
- One Joke, Liebenspiel (Benjamin Alborough and Ellie BW) and Jonathan Oldfield and Lorna Rose Treen
The judging panel, chaired by Liz Lewin, Director of Comedy Series, Netflix UK, whittled down over 550 eligible comedy shows at this year’s Fringe to Wednesday’s shortlist of nominations, identifying six nominees for The Audible Best Comedy Show and seven nominees for The Taffner Family Best Newcomer Award.
The Audible Best Comedy Show went to Chris Cantrill for Rewilding, a ‘twisted tale’ about how life in Cantrill’s peaceful countryside community was disrupted by a heinous act of vandalism. This win is on Cantrill’s fourth nomination for Best Comedy Show, with two previous nominations as half of The Delightful Sausage in 2019 and 2022 and one for his previous solo show at the Fringe in 2024. His comedy partner in The Delightful Sausage, Amy Gledhill, won Best Comedy Show in 2024, meaning both of the duo have now taken home comedy’s most prestigious accolade in the space of three years. Gledhill has since gone on to appear in Last One Laughing S2 and had a new comedy, Opening Up, commissioned by the BBC earlier this year.
The Taffner Family Best Newcomer Award went to Irish comedian Marty Gleeson for Dog Ear, which is inspired by her time at art school in Limerick. Gleeson is a BBC New Comedy Award and Channel 4’s Sean Lock Awards finalist and was crowned LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year 2024.
The judges also announced The Audible Panel Prize, which is marking its 20th anniversary this year having been first awarded in 2026 and is given to an act or organisation that best represents the ‘spirit of the Fringe’. The Audible Panel Prize was awarded to One Joke, an entirely unique experience as 60 comedians tell just one single perfect joke before leaving the stage. Produced by Benjamin Alborough and Ellie BW of Liebenspiel, One Joke is compared by Jonathan Oldfield, headlined by Lorna Rose Treen and featuring 60 comedians, all in the name of charity.
Nica Burns CBE, Director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and Emma Brünjes, Executive Director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said:
“In Chris and Marty we have two outstanding winners: both are exceptional comedians, writers and performers who have crafted wonderful shows to win the accolades of Best Comedy Show and Best Newcomer. There is so much talent at the Edinburgh Fringe and comedy is again the largest category this year. With so much talent to choose from, the judges’ debate was knowledgeable, exciting and passionate. Congratulations to Chris and Marty and all the comedians shortlisted – you are all terrific.”
Liz Lewin, Director of Comedy Series, Netflix UK and Chair of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2026 panel, said:
“It was wonderful to be part of a judging panel and process that gave such careful, thorough and enjoyable consideration to such a range of outstanding comedians, any one of whom would have been a winner to be proud of. In Chris and Marty we see two very different but equally brilliant writers and performers who have both conjured something that only they could have.”
The judges for the Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2026 are:
- Liz Lewin (Panel Chair): Director of Comedy Series, Netflix UK
- Sasha Bobak: Comedy and Entertainment Producer, BBC Studios
- Sam Bryant: Director of Original Content / Head of Comedy, Audible
- Amar Chauhan: Public Panellist
- Tristram Fane Saunders: Freelance Arts Journalist and Comedy Critic, The Telegraph
- Isabelle Jackson: Public Panellist
- Dominic Maxwell: Comedy and Theatre Critic for The Times and The Sunday Times
- Louise Robb: Public Panellist
- Anya Ryan: Comedy and Theatre Critic at The Guardian, The Times, TimeOut, The Stage
- Darren Smith: Creative Director, DLT Entertainment
The Fringe remains the key launchpad for comedians and the Edinburgh Comedy Awards play a vital role in spotlighting emerging talent. Recently, winners have gone on to appear in high-profile projects including Last One Laughing S2, which starred Best Comedy Show winners Amy Gledhill (2024) and Sam Campbell (2022), and SNL UK, which features 2025 Best Newcomer winner Ayoade Bamgboye plus four other nominees: Larry Dean, George Fouracres (as part of sketch trio Daphne), Ania Magliano, and Paddy Young. In April of this year, 2016 winner Richard Gadd’s Half Man, a six-part TV drama, premiered on the BBC and HBO, and in May the BBC announced it has commissioned a new comedy Opening Up from 2024 winner Amy Gledhill.
The Awards have a fantastic record for discovering comedians who become successful both nationally and world wide. Previous Award winners include Stephen Fry, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans, Al Murray, Sarah Millican, Omid Djalili, Eddie Izzard, Tim Minchin, The League of Gentlemen, Jenny Eclair and Frank Skinner. Many award winners and nominees have gone on to have a significant impact on mainstream popular culture by writing, directing and acting in some of the most iconic television and film over the last four decades, including Green Wing and Smack The Pony(Victoria Pile), Sherlock (Mark Gatiss), Alan Partridge and Philomena (Steve Coogan), Car Share (Peter Kay), The IT Crowd (Richard Ayoade), Benidorm and No.9 (Steve Pemberton), Doctor Who and her eponymous TV show (Catherine Tate), W1A (Sara Pascoe), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Romesh Ranganathan), Sex Education (Hannah Gadsby), This Way Up (Aisling Bea), Baby Reindeer (Richard Gadd), The Mash Report and Pod Save the UK (Nish Kumar) and Starstruck(Rose Matafeo). Best Newcomer nominee Alex Horne created the BAFTA award-winning TV series Taskmaster, which has had appearances from 45 Edinburgh Comedy Awards winners and nominees across its 22 series.
Tonight (Saturday 29th August), BBC Radio 4 will air a special showcase featuring the nominees for the 2026 Audible Best Comedy Show and the Taffner Family Best Newcomer Award. The showcase will be broadcast at 11pm and available to catch up on BBC Sounds, bringing highlights of the Fringe to listeners all over the UK.