Noel Fielding (; born 21 May 1973) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He gained prominence in the late 1990s as a member of the comedy troupe The Mighty Boosh, which he formed with fellow comedian Julian Barratt. and is known for his dark and surreal comedic style.
Fielding began performing stand-up comedy when he graduated from art school in 1995, and in 1997 he first met Mighty Boosh collaborator Julian Barratt when he attended one of Barratt's solo stand-up gig's at the Hellfire comedy club. Aside from his comedy and television career, Fielding also works as a visual artist, exhibiting his artwork internationally, and as a musician as a member of the band Loose Tapestries.
Early life and education
thumb|The cast of the Mighty Boosh at [[San Diego Comic-Con|Comic-con; from left to right Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Michael Fielding, Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown (2009)]]
thumb|Fielding and Barratt as Vince Noir and Howard Moon in the stageshow [[The Mighty Boosh Live at the Brighton Dome (February 2006)]]
Fielding was born in the Westminster area of London in 1973, the son of Royal Mail manager Ray Fielding and Yvonne Fagan and he grew up in Mitcham, Southwest London.
He is of French descent through his father who Fielding has described as being "..basically French" Fielding has commented that, "My parents had lots of parties... They were hopelessly bohemian."
When Fielding was around 6 or 7 he was at a Kiss concert, wearing a Kiss costume and he was taken to the backstage dressing room of Kiss so that Gene Simmons could be shown his costume. At the age of 13, Fielding began writing comedy sketches. At the age of 15, Fielding became a goth and had goth girlfriends
and at this time he first tried using makeup and said he loved being dressed up by his girlfriends.
Whilst studying at Croydon Art College and in their second and third year of university all three lived in a student flat together.
He first met Mighty Boosh collaborator Julian Barratt when he attended one of Barratt's solo stand-up gig's at the Hellfire comedy club and Fielding approached Barratt after his gig had finished. Later, on The Jonathan Ross Show, Barratt said that they had liked each other's comedy but didn't know if a collaboration would work, but, according to Fielding, they "had quite a good chemistry straight away".On the day they met they both went back to Julian's place that night where Barratt played music on his Akai sampler while Fielding used a ping-pong ball to make an eye patch. They shared an interest in music, with Fielding more into rock and roll and pop, and Barratt preferring jazz, but both enjoyed electro and both had played in bands before meeting. They also shared common interests in comedy, including Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. as he wanted to concentrate on writing The Mighty Boosh film with Julian Barratt as well as creating a new album. In 2012 he toured Sydney and Melbourne performing a solo stand-up show as well as hosting a stand-up comedy gala as a part of the Just For Laughs festival held in Sydney.
From 2014 to 2015 Fielding toured the UK and Australia with a new comedy show An Evening With Noel Fielding that included both stand-up comedy and sketch comedy and along with Fielding included performances from his brother Michael Fielding and long-term collaborator Tom Meeten. Mighty Boosh collaborator Nigel Coan created the animation for the show.
In 2005 Fielding performed a solo stand-up show at Montreal's Just For Laughs comedy festival and in 2020 the festival had to be moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic and during this period Fielding and Jimmy Carr live streamed a conversation from their respective homes.
The Mighty Boosh
thumb|A performance of the stageshow [[The Mighty Boosh Live at the Brighton Dome. February 2006]]
Barratt and Fielding performed together for the first time in Stewart Lee's show, Moby Dick and King Dong (at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 1997), in which Barratt played King Dong's penis.
Sometime around 1998 Both Michael Fielding and Richard Ayoade appeared in a performance of the Mighty Boosh at the Hen and Chickens in 2002 during a live run through of a Mighty Boosh pilot.
thumb|[[The Mighty Boosh Live stage show; from left to right: Rich Fulcher, Julian Barratt, Michael Fielding, Dave Brown, and Noel Fielding (March 2006)]]
thumb|Julian Barratt as Howard Moon at the Mighty Boosh Live, [[Brighton Dome, Feb 2006]]
In 2001 The Mighty Boosh became a six-part radio show on BBC London Live, later transferring to BBC Radio 4. The Mighty Boosh almost did not make it to television, until Steve Coogan's production company sold the concept to the BBC simply by saying: "If we were young, we'd want to be them".
Fielding formed "Secret Peter Productions" Fielding later said "We always thought we'd make one show and that'd be the end of it. But after we won the Perrier, everyone was telling us that we had to do another, which we did and brought it to Melbourne and won the Barry, and then we made a radio show that won the Douglas Adams Award... It went on and on". The Mighty Boosh also won the Shockwaves NME Best TV Award three times in 2007, 2008, and 2010. and he would have loved to do so, but they never got around to it. They wrote two film scripts which did not make it to production. One was a "Rocky Horror Picture Show type thing", according to Fielding, in which Barratt played a character who has woken up believing himself to be the last man on earth. The other was an Arctic adventure – "because we always liked the Arctic". and when Bailey returned as team captain, presenter Simon Amstell made various jokes about Fielding's departure. Fielding also achieved a record for the highest team score ever on the show and in 2009, Bailey left the show and Fielding became one of the regular team captains.
In The IT Crowd, Fielding plays Richmond, a former executive who used to report to Denholm, the director of the company that he and the other main characters Maurice, Roy and Jen work for, but after he discovered black metal band Cradle of Filth he changed his appearance at work to that of a goth and began living in the IT department server room.
Between 2006 and 2019 Fielding appeared thirteen times on the quiz show The Big Fat Quiz of the Year as well as its spin-off shows The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz, The Big Fat Quiz of the Decade and The Big Fat Quiz of Everything. He appeared on the quiz show three times with Russell Brand, nine times with Richard Ayoade and once with Eddie Izzard.
In 2011, he took part in Catherine Tate's TV movie Laughing at the Noughties in which he and other British comedians discussed the comedy highlights of the noughties.
thumb|A scene from the television series. At right is Noel Fielding as Tony Harrison with [[Richard Ayoade as Saboo]]
Fielding produced his first solo series for Channel 4 network's E4 channel in 2011, as the broadcaster invested an additional £5 million in its comedy budget following the cancellation of reality show Big Brother. Fielding said of the project, tentatively titled Noel Fielding: Boopus: "I want to make something in the spirit of Spike Milligan or the Kenny Everett Show but using modern techniques. Blending filmed comedy with animation. Television needs a madman! I want the show to be psychedelic and beautiful but have charm and personality. If Dalí made a show hopefully it would look like this." The show began broadcasting in January 2012, titled Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy. The show's second series, titled Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy 2: Tales From Painted Hawaii, was first broadcast on E4 in 2014.
thumb|Julian Barratt playing Howard Moon in the stageshow [[The Mighty Boosh Live. March 2006]]
Also in 2011, Fielding performed Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" dance routine for Series 3 of Let's Dance for Comic Relief, and reached the grand final.
In 2010 and 2014, he took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.
In March 2017, it was revealed that Fielding would co-host the upcoming series of The Great British Bake Off alongside Sandi Toksvig.
Fielding appeared as a contestant on Series 4 of the Dave comedy panel game Taskmaster in 2017, hosted by Greg Davies and Alex Horne: he was the overall series winner.
In January 2018, he was a panellist on QI alongside Russell Brand and Aisling Bea.
In 2024, Fielding played Dick Turpin in an Apple TV+ comedy series, The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.
According to Neil Gaiman's blog, Fielding was scheduled to appear in the 2007 film Stardust, but had to drop out due to ill health.
Radio
thumb|<small>The pre-show curtain for the Mighty Boosh Live stage show. Fielding and longterms collaborators [[Nigel Coan and Ivana Zorn all helped to create the animation that was used in the Mighty Boosh TV show. Dave Brown also contributed to graphics for the Mighty Boosh including the DVD cover art for the Mighty Boosh Live 2006 stage show and all the publishing output.
Music
In late 1999 Fielding's melding of comedy and music led to him collaborating with Midfield General on the song "Midfielding", in which Noel delivers a surrealist monologue about native British mammals traveling to Africa to "kick some butt".
Fielding has appeared in several music videos, including Mint Royale's "Blue Song", alongside Julian Barratt, Nick Frost and Michael Smiley. The video was directed by Edgar Wright and served as the inspiration for the opening sequence of his film Baby Driver (2017). He also made a brief appearance in the video for Razorlight's "In the Morning". He appeared in music videos for the Robots in Disguise songs "Girl" (alongside Chris Corner who was, at the time, boyfriend to Sue Denim), "The Tears", and "Turn It Up". In 2009, Noel was involved in the Kasabian video "Vlad the Impaler", in which he plays the titular character, and reprised the role at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival.
The music video was directed by Richard Ayoade. He was referenced in Kasabian's "La Fée Verte", a track on their Velociraptor! album (his friend Sergio Pizzorno said "The line, 'I met Dalí in the street.' Dalí is Noel Fielding. And he is the modern-day Dalí"). Fielding also makes a brief appearance as Vlad in the video for another Kasabian song, "Re-Wired", riding a five-seater bicycle with the band, and appears as a patient in a psychiatric hospital in "You're In Love With a Psycho", in which he re-enacts the broken mirror routine from the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup with Pizzorno and Tom Meighan. He has also appeared in Kate Bush's music video "Deeper Understanding" as a means of thanks for the Let's Dance For Comic Relief performance.
Fielding paired up with Sergio Pizzorno (Kasabian) to form a band, Loose Tapestries, formed to provide music for Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy. Loose Tapestries released two albums and a Christmas single.
Art
Fielding has exhibited his paintings in London. He held his first exhibition of his paintings, entitled Psychedelic Dreams of the Jelly Fox, and Fielding has also cited Salvador Dalí as an inspiration.
In October 2011, Fielding released an art book called Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton, which he produced along with The Mighty Boosh cast member Dave Brown. It features many of his old and new paintings, drawings and photography.
Fielding's video installation of The Jelly Fox was shown at the Saatchi Gallery, and in 2012 he created a unique piece inspired by The Beatles for Liverpool Love at the Museum of Liverpool. In March 2015, his exhibition He Wore Dreams Around Unkind Faces was shown at the Royal Albert Hall.
In January 2021, the luxury fashion house Fendi unveiled a collection featuring abstract takes on the brand's logo, created by Fielding.
On 18 November 2025, British rock band Pink Floyd released a newly mixed version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I–IX) along with an official YouTube video featuring a time-lapse painting by Fielding inspired by founding Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett.
Recognition and honours
On 6 September 2011, Fielding received an honorary master's degree from his alma mater, now called Buckinghamshire New University, for his ongoing interest in the graphics area and support for many art organisations.
Personal life
Fielding was formerly in a relationship with Robots in Disguise lead vocalist Dee Plume, who made minor appearances in The Mighty Boosh and in its live adaptations.
In relation to his sexuality it was once commented to Fielding, whilst being interviewed by Alan Carr on Alan Carr: Chatty Man, "Now I've heard you kissed a man once..." with Fielding replying "...actually you know I'm not, I'm not sort of, I'm not really against, I will get off with a man, if I'm drunk, just not sure... I don't mind a feel up, just not sure I want to, you know [he then uses hand gestures to imitate anal sex]...", with Carr responding "That's fair enough, that's fair...". Fielding described himself as gender fluid in a 2024 interview, saying "I’m always interested in clothes and makeup and I’ve always been quite gender-fluid".
During his time at art college, Fielding developed what was suspected to be the virus hepatitis A though it was later confirmed to be glandular fever.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1999
| Plunkett & Macleane
| Brothel Gent
|
|-
| 2001
| Sweet
| Pete Sweet
| Short
|-
| 2009
| Bunny and the Bull
| Javier
| Balthazar
| Voice
|-
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1997–1998
| Gas
| Himself
| Performed stand-up comedy in four episodes: Series 1 (8), Series 2 (2, 4, 6)
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1998
| Unnatural Acts
| Various
|
|-
| Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round
| Various
| Episode #1.2
|-
| 1999
| Comedy Cafe
| Himself
| Episode #1.7
|-
| rowspan="2"|2000
| The Big Schmooze
| Himself – Arctic Boosh
| Episode #1.4
|-
|Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala
| Himself
| Stand-up comedy performed alongside Julian Barratt - Broadcast on ABC
|-
| 2001
| Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala
| Himself
| Stand-up comedy performed alongside Julian Barratt - Broadcast on ABC
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2006
| The Secret Policeman's Ball
| Himself / Vince Noir
|
|-
| The British Comedy Awards 2006 Live
| Himself
| TV special
|-
| 2006–2008
|Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
| Himself
| Three Episodes
|-
| 2006–2013
| The IT Crowd
| Richmond Avenal
| Recurring character that appeared in 6 episodes in series 1, 2 and 4 as well as in the 2013 special.
|-
| rowspan="5" | 2007
| Dawn French's Boys Who Do Comedy
| Himself
| Episodes #1, #2, #3
|-
| Comic Relief 2007: The Big One
| Himself / Various
| TV special
|-
| Deadline
| Himself
| Episode #1.2
|-
| The Charlotte Church Show
| Himself
| Episode #2.2
|-
| Never Mind the Buzzcocks
| Himself
| Guest Team Captain, 3 episodes
|-
| 2009–2015, 2021 -2025
| Never Mind the Buzzcocks
| Himself
| Team Captain beginning series 23. 120 episodes in total
|-
|Channel 4's Comedy Gala
|Himself
|TV Special
|-
| rowspan="6" | 2011
| Let's Dance for Sport Relief
| Himself
| Two Episodes
|-
| 24 Hour Panel People
| Himself
| Episode #1.5
|-
| Dynamo: Magician Impossible
| Himself
| Episode "England"
|-
| Horrid Henry's Movie Mayhem
| Himself
| TV movie
|-
| Catherine Tate: Laughing at the Noughties
| Himself
| TV movie
|-
| The Rob Brydon Show
| Himself
| Episode #2.8
|-
| rowspan="5" | 2012
| The Jonathan Ross Show
| Himself
| Episode #2.3
|-
| The Secret Policeman's Ball
| Himself
| TV special
|-
| Perspectives
| Himself
| Episode "John Sergeant: Sergeant on Spike"
|-
| The Project
| Himself
|
|-
| The Big Fat Quiz of the Decade
| Himself
| TV Special
|-
| 2012–2014
| Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy
| Himself / Various
|-
| rowspan="4" | 2013
| Doll & Em
| Noel
| Episode "Six"
|-
| Brand X with Russell Brand
| Himself
| Episode #2.1
|-
| Gadget Man
| Himself
| Episode "Summer Holiday"
|-
| Staying in with Greg and Russell
| Himself
|-
| 2013–2018
| QI
| Himself
| Eight episodes
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2014
| Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled
| Himself
| Episode "Cupped by a Shammy Hand"
|-
| The Last Leg
| Himself
| Episode #5.2
|-
| rowspan="4" | 2015
| The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz
| Himself
| TV special
|-
| Backchat
| Himself
| Episode #2.2
|-
| Live at the Apollo
| Himself
| Episode #11.3 - Stand-Up Comedy
|-
| Trailer Park Boys: Out of the Park
| Lord Pumpwhistle / Himself
| Episode "Europe – London"
|-
| The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
| Himself
| 2 appearances
|-
| The Entire Universe
| Einstein
| TV movie
|-
| Travel Man
| Himself
| Episode "48 Hours in Copenhagen"
|-
| Conan
| Himself
| 1 appearance
|-
| @midnight
| Himself
|
|-
|Alan Carr's Happy Hour
| Himself
| Series 1 Episode 3
|-
| 2016–2017
| The Big Fat Quiz of Everything
| Himself
| Four Episodes
| Played a computer junkie
|-
| Kasabian
| "Re-Wired"
| Played the aforementioned Vlad the Impaler.
|-
| 2016
| The Claypool Lennon Delirium
| "Bubbles Burst"
|
|-
| 2017
| Kasabian
| "You're in Love with a Psycho"
|
|}
References
External links
- Official website
- PBJ Artist Page