About Joz
Joz Norris is an acclaimed writer, performer and, indeed, writer-performer. He makes unusual shows for the Edinburgh Fringe that sit somewhere between absurdist comedy and conceptual theatre, including the smash hit Joz Norris Is Dead. Long Live Mr Fruit Salad. (winner of the Comedians’ Choice Award for Best Show, nominee for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, the Chortle Award for Best Music & Variety Act, and longlisted for the Edinburgh Comedy Award) and Blink (one of the Evening Standard’s Top 20 comedy shows of 2022, and sponsored by Arts Council England), both of which transferred to multiple runs at Soho Theatre.
In 2020 he adapted You Build The Thing You Think You Are, which would have been a new live show, into a feature film streamed online which was acclaimed as one of the comedy highlights of the year by both the Guardian and the Telegraph.
He also writes and performs in scripted narrative comedy projects, especially in radio and short film. His original sitcom for BBC Radio 4, The Dream Factory, co-written with Miranda Holms, was a radio pick of the week in the Observer, the Times, the Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, and was featured on Radio 4’s Comedy of the Week podcast, and his Radio 4 comedy special A Small Talk On Small Talk was a Guardian Audio Pick of the Week. He was also the co-host and co-creator of BBC Radio 4’s Useless Millennials with Roxy Dunn, and has guest starred in Radio 4’s The Many Wrongs Of Lord Christian Brighty; The Now Show and The Train At Platform 4.
His sitcom collaboration with Ed Aczel, Ed & Joz’s Heist Movie, was produced as a non-broadcast pilot by Tiger Aspect. His short films and webseries (including Dog House, a surreal comedy-drama directed by Miranda Holms; The Baby, a horror-art-comedy collaboration with Lucy Pearman, Sam Nicoresti & Lottie Bowater; and The Girl Whisperer, a webseries co-written by and co-starring The Royle Family’s Ralf Little) have been Official Selections and award-winners at film festivals worldwide, and his sitcom scripts have been staged to acclaim at live readings at Soho Theatre, King’s Place and the Pleasance.
He has also written sketches for BBC Radio 4’s award-winning The Skewer and the BBC’s Horrible Science and is a regular contributor to John-Luke Roberts’ BBC Audio Drama Award-winning Sound Heap podcast, and Rosie Holt’s current affairs podcast NonCensored. He has appeared on podcasts including RHLSTP and Nobody Panic, and appeared in sketches for TV programmes on BBC Three, Channel 4, Comedy Central, ITV2 and Dave.
He directed Cerys Bradley’s Neurodiverse Review Award-winning debut show Sportsperson, and has worked as a director, creative consultant or script consultant for writers and artists including Ben Target; Jon Brittain; Edy Hurst; Bec Hill; Lulu Popplewell; Katie Pritchard; Rosalie Minnitt; Ted Hill and many more.
NOW
Joz is currently developing and pitching several narrative scripted comedy projects, including Flake with Miranda Holms (currently in development with Hat Trick) and solo scripted projects The Happiness Chain (recently longlisted for the David Nobbs Memorial Trust New Comedy Writing Award and the Shortcom Sitcom Competition); Your Child & I and The Last One You’d Expect. The Happiness Chain is going into production in autumn 2024 as an independent pilot directed by Ben Kent (The Stand-Up Sketch Show).
He is working on a new solo show entitled You Wait. Time Passes. which played a short work-in-progress run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2024 to widespread word-of-mouth acclaim. The show will be touring festivals and coming to the Fringe for a full run in 2025.
He recently released his latest short film, Dog House, which is currently playing the festival circuit, and the comedy special Joz Norris Is Dead. Long Live Mr Fruit Salad.
He curates and produces the short-film-and-new-writing night Eggbox with Miranda Holms, and is co-writing the audio horror project Radio Summerisle with Elf Lyons and Matthew Highton. He also writes for Charlie Hopkinson’s viral smash-hit Lord of the Rings Youtube series.
He is directing Edy Hurst’s new live show Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie Of Witchcraft In The County Of Himself, which is on tour in 2024-25, and Lulu Popplewell’s new show for 2025, currently titled Yuck.
