Joe Cornish (comedian)

Joe Cornish
Born	20 December 1968 (1968-12-20) (age 42) London, England, UK
Medium	Comedian, writer, director, television presenter
Nationality	British

Joseph Murray "Joe" Cornish (born 20 December 1968) is an English comedian, television and radio presenter, director, writer and actor, who along with his long-time comedy partner, Adam Buxton, form the comedy duo Adam and Joe. In 2011 Cornish released his directorial debut Attack the Block. He has also co-written The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn with Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright.

Early life

He was educated at the independent Westminster School in central London, where he became friends with both Adam Buxton and Louis Theroux. He went on to study at the Bournemouth Film School, indulging and cultivating his love of films.

The Adam and Joe Show

Main article: The Adam and Joe Show

The Adam and Joe Show was an ironic pop culture sketch show written, presented and directed by the duo. The show found cult success during its four series between 1996 and 2001. The best-known segments featured hit feature films recreated with stuffed toys, British TV shows parodied using Star Wars action figures, and Vinyl Justice, in which the pair invaded rock stars' homes and searched their record collections for embarrassing records.^[1]

In 2001, he fronted the topical discussion show This Week Only, alongside Nick Frost and Lauren Laverne.

Since the demise of The Adam and Joe Show, Cornish has continued to work in British television and radio as a presenter, writer and director, both with and without Buxton. Since 2007 he and Adam have presented Adam and Joe, a radio show on BBC 6 Music.

Directing

Cornish has made a number of behind the scenes documentaries/video diaries. They include, Joe following the making of Little Britain series 2, which was screened on BBC Three and is included on the Little Britain Series 2 DVD, a video diary of his brief cameo as a zombie, which appears on the UK Shaun of the Dead DVD and 'Hot Fuzz': The Fuzzball Rally, where he followed his friends and collaborators, Edgar Wright, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg on the US Press Tour for their film, Hot Fuzz.

There have been 2 Cuts of the Fuzzball Rally, a 28 minute version was included on the Hot Fuzz HD DVD (UK/US) and a 71 minute version was included on both the 3-Disc Collectors Edition DVD (US) and the Blu-Ray Disc (US/UK) of Fuzz. The documentary caused the latter's certification to be changed from a 15 certificate to an 18 certificate, due to the Very Strong Language the documentary contains.

Joe has continued his work in television comedy, directing parts of the pilot of Modern Toss, and the pilot to Channel 4's Blunder. According to an interview in Word Magazine he pulled out of directing the series of Blunder due to creative differences with Channel 4 and the production company. In early 2007 he directed the video for Charlotte Hatherley's single I Want You To Know.

In May 2011, Optimum released Attack the Block, Cornish's first feature film, which was executive produced by his friend and collaborator, Edgar Wright and produced by Film4, Big Talk Pictures, The UK Film Council and StudioCanal.

Other work

He wrote and presented the BBC Radio 4 film programme Back Row between 2002 and 2003.

In 2007, he made a brief appearance in his friend Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz as a white suited and bemasked Scenes-Of-Crime Officer named 'Bob'.

Also in 2007, he and Adam began presenting Adam and Joe, a radio show on BBC 6 Music. This was put on hold during 2010 while Joe directed Attack the Block; a new series began on Saturday 2 April 2011.

Cornish has recently been involved with several non-comedy projects. In 2006 he was announced as co-writer on a feature film adaptation of Marvel Comics comic book character Ant-Man, with Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright. Wright and Cornish also rewrote Steven Moffat's script for The Adventures of Tintin, co-starring Simon Pegg, for Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

He lives in South London with his long-term partner, Annabel.

Attack the Block

Attack the Block is the directorial debut of Cornish, a south London science fiction action film that pitches a gang of youths against an alien invasion. The UK release date was 13 May 2011. The film had no US distributor but after the reaction of the press and attendees at the SXSW premiere,^[2] the US rights were purchased by Sony Pictures Owned, Screen Gems for theatrical release on July 29 2011.

Variety quote Optimum Releasing’s Will Clarke as saying: "Attack the Block is one of the most inventive and entertaining scripts we have ever read and a great project to kick off the relationship."

References

1. ^ Freeman, Hadley (15 September 2001). "Trivia pursuits". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2001/sep/15/fashion.features. 
2. ^ http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-captured/posts/review-midnight-movie-attack-the-block-is-an-instant-genre-classic

External links

• Joe Cornish at the Internet Movie Database
• The Tall Guy: The Joe Cornish Interview – Channel 4
• Adam and Joe: How We Met – The Independent
• Joe, Adam and the Ant-man – The Independent
• Some Groovy Attack the Block Updates – Shaun of the Dead With Aliens?
• http://www.attacktheblock.com – Official Site for Attack The Block

Persondata
Name	Cornish, Joe
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	20 December 1968
Place of birth	London, England
Date of death
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