Biography

Alex Horne is a British musical comedian, best known as the host of 'The Horne Section', a live music variety act, and as the creator of Taskmaster on Dave, a comedy panel show in which he 'assists' the 'Taskmaster' Greg Davies, who tasks the assembled comedians each episode with the job of performing various ludicrous tasks. He is also known as the host of iTunes chart-topping and Chortle Award nominated podcast Alex Horne Breaks the News (Dave).

After being a 'real' contestant on the genuine version of Channel 4's Countdown in 2008, he has returned with the band for many times on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown and is a regular favourite.

Horne's first forays into the comedy world began with an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000, with a show entitled 'How To Avoid Huge Ships'. In 2003, his Edinburgh show 'Making Fish Laugh' was nominated for a Perrier newcomer award, and in 2004 he won the Chortle Award for Best Breakthrough Act.

Horne has also partnered with fellow comic Tim Key[/y] on numerous occasions, in particular shows including 'Every Body Talks' and 'When In Rome'. Both were known for including extensive use of PowerPoint in a mock-lecture style. He took the latter on tour in 2006.

In 2007 and 2008, Horne took his stand-up shows 'Birdwatching' and 'Wordwatching', respectively, to the Fringe festival, to great acclaim. After the successful completion of both, he signed a book deal with Virgin Publishing to write these stories as books, which were published in 2009 and 2010.

Between 2006 and 2007 he worked alongside fellow comedian Owen Powell in an attempt to find someone from every nationality living in London, finding residents from 189 of the UN's 192 countries.

In 2011 he compered 'The Horne Section', a comedy variety show, and this led BBC Radio 4 to commission three series of Alex Horne Presents the Horne Section, a musical comedy performance consisting of silly songs and deliberately mediocre singing ability. The Horne Section played to sold-out audience 5 years in a row at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2011 Horne appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, finishing second of all contestants with a specialist subject of comedian Ken Dodd.

In 2012 he chaired Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and the band accompanied him at various points during the quiz, performing several songs.

In May 2018, Horne presented The Horne Section Television Programme, a musical comedy stage show based on his BBC Radio 4 show. The Horne Section, that was recorded live at the London Palladium.

In 2011 he wrote and presented a documentary for BBC Four entitled The Games That Time Forgot, finding sports and leisure activities that have been lost over time. He has taken 9 solo shows to the Edinburgh festival, earning a Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination in 2014 for Monsieur Butterfly.

Known for seamlessly blending the serious and the downright silly, Horne's humour is warm, off-the-wall, and unexpected.