Jayde Adams

Adams started performing stand-up comedy in 2011, following the premature death from an inoperable brain tumour of her sister Jenna, with whom she had danced competitively for 13 years at her aunt's dance school in Bristol.[2][4][5] As a child, Jayde attended several youth theatre groups in Bristol, including Bristol Old Vic Youth Theatre but never formally trained in acting or singing and moved to Wales in 2004 to study Drama, Theatre and Media at the University of Glamorgan.

In 2012 she was nominated by Time Out magazine as their wildcard for The Hospital Club, London h.Club 100 Awards list of "Most Influential Person in the Arts".

In 2013 she won an audience vote for the London Cabaret Awards.[6]

On 22 September 2014 she won the main award at the Funny Women Awards at the Leicester Square Theatre. She later hosted the Funny Women Finals 2020 during the pandemic at The Comedy Store in London's West End. Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic the comedy competition was performed with no audience present.[7]

In August 2015 Adams co-hosted Before The Morning After with NBC featuring The Pyjama Men, Gina Yashere and Tom Stade. The segment involved Jayde finishing the show by singing "Offenbach's Barcarolle" from Life Is Beautiful. In December 2015, she made her TV acting debut in Russell Howard's A Gert Lush Christmas.

In October 2016, Sky Arts released Adams' Halloween Comedy Short, Bloody Tracy, written by and starring Adams and featuring Spencer Jones and Gabby Best. [8][9]

In August 2016 Adams wrote and performed in 31, her debut Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, which was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. She has since been a panellist on Channel 4's comedy quiz shows, 8 Out of 10 Cats[10] and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.[11]

In 2017, she was the host for Say Whaaat? on Comedy Central (UK) with US comedy troupe The Tenderloins from comedy show Impractical Jokers also featuring British comedian Russell Kane.[12] She will also be a contestant on Dave's Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit opposite Simon Gregson and host of Comedy Central's Live At The Comedy Store in 2018.

During Edinburgh Fringe 2017, for her second show Jayded, Adams won a further two awards for The Scottish Sun for 'Best Show' and 'Best Female Performer' and was nominated for The Barry Awards (UK) for ‘Best Performer.’ Jayde collaborated with Jerry Springer The Opera writer, Richard Thomas for a song in the show called "No More Mrs Nice Jayde". She transferred this show in December 2017 to London's West End, Soho Theatre with Thomas joining her every night on piano, for the finale.[13]

In 2017 Jayde performed stand up on BBC One and joined the likes of Lenny Henry, Miranda Hart, Dawn French, Graham Norton, David Tennant for Red Nose Day 2017.[14]

In 2019 she played opposite Miranda Richardson as Julia Petley in Neil Gaiman's Good Omens, which was shown on Amazon Prime.

Adams attended the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018 with her third show 'The Divine Ms Jayde' a homage to Bette Midler's debut album and tour in 1972, 'The Divine Miss M.

In 2019 Adams performed The Ballad of Kylie Jenner’s Old Face at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won an award for ‘Best Show’ with JOE.[15] She performed the show under a different name Serious Black Jumper at The Bloomsbury Theatre where comedians such as Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr and Harry Hill used the venue for their own DVD recordings. The Bloomsbury has also hosted many music events such as The Zombies, Adele, Paul Simon and Ray Davies. This was recorded for Amazon Prime Video and released on 3 January 2020 with the new title. The show poked fun at modern day feminism, social media and involved jokes surrounding the observation that celebrities wear black turtle necks to seem more serious.[16]

In 2020 Jayde was long-listed for the 2020 Emmy Awards by The Hollywood Reporter columnist Scott Feinberg for "Best Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)" for her Amazon Prime Stand up Special Serious Black Jumper.[17]

Jayde Adams is the host, along with Fred Siriex from Channel 4's First Dates, of the BAFTA[18] nominated TV show Snackmasters which aired on Channel 4 in 2019. In a cook off at the KitKat factory, Monster Munch Factory and Burger King Factory, two top chefs compete to make the perfect replica, before being judged by the workers and bosses behind the real thing.[19]

In January 2020, Jayde hosted a new food show on Netflix and Channel 4 with Heston Blumenthal called Crazy Delicious,[20] which was long-listed for a TV Choice Award in 2020.[21]

During August 2020, and because of the pandemic; Jayde Adams hosted and organised 3 comedy shows with Al Murray at The Clapham Grand for a charity benefit titled 'Save Live Comedy'. The show was named after a hashtag that went viral in July 2020 when The Live Comedy Association found that 77.8% of live comedy venues across the UK are currently fearful of having to shut down within the next year, in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown measures.[22]

It featured over 50 comedians from the UK comedy scene including; James Acaster, Joe Lycett, Nish Kumar, Aisling Bea, Mawaan Rizwan, Dane Baptiste, Kerry Godliman, Ed Gamble, and Shappi Khorsandi. Each show was over 3 hours long and broadcast to an audience at home on Zoom. Most performers had not performed on a stage for over 6 months, Shappi Khorsandi was so emotional she was initially unable to talk.[23] The 3 shows raised over £20,000, which was split between the comedians' favourite comedy venues.

In September 2020 Adams hosted the first episode of BBC Three's Stand Up for Live Comedy filmed in Bristol, with guests Lauren Pattison, Mo Omar and Tom Lucy.[24]

Appeared in Richard Osman's House of Games, alongside Scott Mills, Rufus Hound and Josie D'Arby.

Born in Bristol, Adams attended her aunt's freestyle disco dancing classes with her sister for 13 years.[25]

She moved to South Wales at the age of 18 and studied drama, theatre and media at The University of Glamorgan.[26] In Wales, Jayde performed experimental theatre and contemporary dance at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay.

In 2015, having performed as an Adele impersonator on the drag scene in London, Adams was asked to join several other Adele impersonators for a show the BBC were doing about impersonators. During the recording Adams walked out, saying “I thought it was going to be this reality show." She missed out on an opportunity to meet Adele during a prank set up by the BBC and Graham Norton for Adele at the BBC because she didn't trust the producers' motives. [27]

She is a supporter of the LGBT community and works closely with drag performer Jonny Woo. Having started her live performance career at drag bars such as the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Jayde often cites the LGBT community in London as the reason she found confidence after the death of her sister in 2011.[28]

In March 2018, alongside Melanie Blatt, Nicole Appleton and Shaznay Lewis from the All Saints, Jaime Winstone, John Sizzle and British fashion designer Gareth Pugh, Adams was a judge on Miss Sink The Pink 2018, an annual drag queen talent competition held at The Roundhouse in Camden.

Jayde is the partner of comedian Rich Wilson.

• BBC Russell Howard's A Gert Lush Christmas (2015) Kelly
• Sky Arts A Spencer Jones Christmas (2015) Shop assistant
• Channel 5's Borderline (2016) – Celeste Ferguson
• Channel 4's Sick Note (2016) Cashier
• Sky Arts Bloody Tracy (2016) Tracy / Writer
• BBC Three 'Affordable Meats' (2017) Herself / Writer
• Sky Arts Giddy Up Gunty (2017) Deidre
• BBC Good Omens (2019) Julia Petley
• BBC Alma's Not Normal (2020) Leanne

• Before The Morning After (2015) Host
• 8 Out of 10 Cats (2016) Guest
• 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (2016) Guest
• Russell Brand's Stand Up Hour for Comic Relief (2017) Guest
• Say Whaaat? (2017) Host
• ITV2 The Great Xmas Rant (2017) Guest
• Roast Battle: UK (2018) Contestant
• Sun Bingo 'Are You Gonna Bingo?' national advertising campaign (2018) Herself
• The Chris Ramsey Show (2018) Herself
• Comedy Central's Live At The Comedy Store (2018) Host
• Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit (2018) Guest
• Amusical (2019) Host
• Good Omens (TV series) (2019) Julia Petley

• Jayde Adams at IMDb