The Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2025 nominations announced

The Edinburgh Comedy Awards have announced nominations for its 2025 awards, celebrating the next generation of comedy talent.

The awards have been running for 45 years, and celebrate the best of both up-and-coming comedy and brand-new performers at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and spotlight the next generation of comedy talent.

The 43rd Edinburgh Comedy Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday 23 August 2025 at Ghillie Dhu in Edinburgh, hosted by 2024 winner Amy Gledhill.

The Edinburgh Comedy Awards Gala 2025 will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 21 August at 11pm, and then available on BBC Sounds.

The 43rd Edinburgh Comedy Awards are co-sponsored by Nica Burns, Donald Taffner of DLT Entertainment and the Victoria Wood Foundation.

The prize money for Best Comedy Show, sponsored by The Taffner Family Charitable Trust, is £10,000 with £5,000 each for the DLT Entertainment Best Newcomer and The Victoria Wood Award winner.

This year’s judging panel is chaired by Audible’s Director of Original Content and Comedy Commissioner Sam Bryant. See the full list of judges, below.

Last year’s winners of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards were Amy Gledhill for Amy Gledhill: Make Me Look Fit On The Poster, winning the Best Comedy Show 2024. The Best Newcomer Award went to Joe Kent-Walters, for Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe: LIVE!!!; and The Victoria Wood Award 2024, went to Rob Copland for Rob Copland: Gimme (One With Everything).

Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2025 – Full list of nominees

The Taffner Family Best Comedy Show

Dan Tiernan: All In
Ed Night: Your Old Mucker
Ian Smith: Foot Spa Half Empty
John Tothill: This Must Be Heaven
Katie Norris: Go West, Old Maid
Sam Jay: We the People
Sam Nicoresti: Baby Doomer
Creepy Boys: SLUGS

The DLT Entertainment Best Newcomer Award

Ada and Bron: The Origin of Love
Ayoade Bamgboye: Swings and Roundabouts
Elouise Eftos: Australia’s First Attractive Comedian
Kate Owens: Cooking with Kathryn
Molly McGuinness: Slob
Roger O’Sullivan: Fekken
Toussaint Douglass: Accessible Pigeon Material

Victoria Wood Award

Winner to be announced at the awards ceremony

What They Said

Nica Burns CBE, Director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said: “2025 is another outstanding year of great comedy. Many of those shortlisted will be the stars of tomorrow. It is going to be a very exciting race to find the eventual winners with two brilliant lists of nominees for The Taffner Family Best Comedy Show and the DLT Entertainment Best Newcomer, which this year is female-led. The performers nominated cover a huge amount of topics, with acts from three continents giving diverse perspectives.”

Sam Bryant, Chair of the judging panel, said: “The landscape of comedy is expanding, with audio now playing a huge part in how comedians build their profiles and connect with audiences. It’s a thrilling moment where the live Fringe stage sits alongside podcasts and digital platforms as stepping stones in a comedian’s career. The Edinburgh Comedy Awards have always been a launchpad for the next generation of talent, and that role feels more important than ever. Our panel and scouts dedicated themselves to the process, seeing more than 1,200 hours of comedy across the festival, to ensure that this year’s shortlists reflect the breadth of voices, styles and opportunities shaping the future of the art form.”

Edinburgh Comedy Awards Judging Panel

This year’s 2025 judging panel features seven industry experts and three comedy fans: Sam Bryant: Director of Original Content and Comedy Commissioner, Audible (Chair); Josh Buckingham: Executive Producer, Hat Trick Productions; Ashley Davies: Freelance Arts Journalist, Metro, Times Scotland, Scotsman; Shukri Dirie: Development Producer, Scripted, BBC TalentWorks; Tristram Fane Saunders: Freelance Journalist and Comedy Critic, The Telegraph and Editor of The Little Review; Rachael Healy: Freelance Comedy and Theatre Writer, The Guardian and The Observer; James Robinson: Executive Producer, BBC Studios Audio; and public panellists Janet Jackson, Krishna Kapur, and Justine Teasdale.

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Main photo: Edinburgh Comedy Awards