Jack Whitehall

Jack Peter Benedict Whitehall (born 7 July 1988) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is known for starring as JP in the comedy drama series Fresh Meat (2011–2016) and as Alfie Wickers in the sitcom Bad Education (2012–2014, 2022) and its spin-off film The Bad Education Movie (2015), also co-writing the latter two. From 2012 to 2018, Whitehall was a regular panellist on the television game show A League of Their Own. In 2017, he appeared with his father on the Netflix comedy documentary series Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father and starred in the BBC comedy drama series Decline and Fall. From 2018 to 2021, he hosted the BRIT Awards. Early life Jack Peter Benedict Whitehall was born at Portland Hospital in London's West End on 7 July 1988, the son of actress Hilary Amanda Jane Whitehall (née Isbister; stage name Hilary Gish) and television producer Michael John Whitehall. Whitehall Senior has frequently featured in his son's television programmes. Jack Whitehall has described his father, a staunch Conservative, as "Tory with a capital T", noting that in the first election he was eligible to vote in, his father impersonated him via postal vote to ensure he would vote for the Conservative Party. Whitehall also has a younger sister and brother. Whitehall is a descendant of Welsh lawyer Thomas Jones Phillips (not to be confused with Mayor Thomas Phillips), who was a major opponent of the Newport Rising of 1839. He had two godfathers: actors Nigel Havers and Richard Griffiths. He attended Tower House School in London's East Sheen area, where he was a schoolmate of actor Robert Pattinson. He has often joked that he resented Pattinson for taking all the best acting roles in the school plays. Whitehall auditioned for the title character in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), but the casting director was unimpressed with him because he had not read the book. His parents sent him to boarding school at the age of eight. He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and then Marlborough College. He took a gap year in which he decided to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. He attended the University of Manchester to study History of Art, dropping out after two terms.