Alex Horne

Early life

Alexander James Jeffery Horne was born in Chichester, West Sussex, England on 10 September 1978 to a father who worked as a general practitioner. The middle child of three boys, he was raised in Midhurst. Horne originally attended a public primary school, before he was enrolled into a private school when he was ten years old; he mentioned in a 2024 interview that he was "embarrassed about [it] for many years" but he "now fully embrace[s]" it.

He was educated at independent Lancing College (1991–1996) and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied classics and graduated in 2001. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Footlights, and he wrote for student newspaper Varsity as a sports journalist and satirist. Horne went on to complete a graduate degree in broadcast journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Career

Early career

Horne began his stand-up comedy career at open mic nights in Cambridge and London while he was still a student, and performed in the semi-final of So You Think You're Funny in 1999. He made his first of many appearances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000 in the show "How to Avoid Huge Ships". Early in his career, Horne also worked as a journalist for local newspapers in Sussex, and as a runner on television sets.

Horne's 2003 Edinburgh show "Making Fish Laugh" was nominated for a Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. In 2004, he won a Chortle Award for Best Breakthrough Act. In 2004 and 2005, he performed "Every Body Talks" and "When in Rome", in which Tim Key played his personal assistant and he used Microsoft PowerPoint for presentation. In early 2006, Horne performed "When in Rome" on a tour exclusively visiting Roman towns in Britain.

As a solo performer, Horne wrote and performed "Birdwatching" at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival and "Wordwatching" at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival. He wrote a book entitled Birdwatchingwatching in 2009 as well as Wordwatching in early 2010.

On 18 January 2007, Horne became the first comedian to perform in Second Life for a feature on Sky News. Between 24 October 2006 and 24 October 2007, he worked alongside fellow comedian Owen Powell in an attempt to find a person from every nationality living in London. After a year's search, they finally managed to meet people from 189 of the UN's 192 countries, and hence suggested there is nobody in the city from Tuvalu, Palau, or the Marshall Islands.

The Horne Section

Since 2010, Horne has been performing with his band The Horne Section as the compere of comedy variety shows. Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section (2012–14) ran for three series on BBC Radio 4, and The Horne Section Podcast launched in 2018.[[File:Horne Section 2019.jpg|thumb|The Horne Section performing in 2019]]In May 2018, Horne presented The Horne Section Television Programme, a one-off musical comedy stage show based on his BBC Radio 4 show, The Horne Section. The show was recorded for UKTV in front of a live audience at the London Palladium and aired on Dave on 24 May. The show featured his band, The Horne Section, as well as performances from comedians Sue Perkins, Sara Pascoe and Joe Wilkinson, drag act and opera singer Le Gateau Chocolat, and Girls Aloud singer Nadine Coyle.

A six-episode Channel 4 series, The Horne Section TV Show, was released on 3 November 2022. It is scripted and combines elements of musical comedy, talk show and sitcom. A second six-episode series was ordered and was scheduled for production in 2023. The second series aired on 8 May 2025 on Channel 4's streaming service.

On 11 December 2025, The Horne Section started a twenty-four hour concert in Battersea Power Station, dubbed the "How-Long-Athon", to raise money for Stand Up to Cancer; the performance, which started at 10pm, consisted of only one song, "How Long" by Ace, and featured other comedians joining Horne on stage, including Isy Suttie, Kerry Godliman, Asim Chaudhry, Bridget Christie, Flo and Joan, Phil Ellis, Sara Pascoe, Beverley Knight, Jamelia, Kojey Radical, Mr Blobby, and Dara Ó Briain. The marathon ended at 11pm on 12 December.

''Taskmaster''

The concept of Taskmaster was created by Horne sometime in early 2009. There were many inspirations for the game, including his time working on Big Brother and The Crystal Maze, and his envy of his friend, comedian Tim Key, winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award that same year. By September 2009, Horne had created a series of tasks, which he emailed to twenty comedians and asked them to complete over the course of a year; these included Tim Key, Mark Watson, Joe Wilkinson and Mike Wozniak, all of whom have since appeared on the British Taskmaster television series. Their attempts were filmed, and in August 2010, Horne presented their efforts at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Billed as "The Task Master", Wozniak was the overall winner.

A second Fringe show, this time billed as Taskmaster II, included ten contestants, nine of whom had been in the first, and was held at the following festival in 2011; Josie Long was crowned winner.

Channel 4 paid for a pilot episode, before the show was ultimately picked up by Dave. Since 2015, Horne has served as co-host alongside Greg Davies in the Taskmaster series. It was originally broadcast on Dave and transferred to Channel 4 in 2020.

In 2018, Horne co-hosted the American remake of the show, which carried a shorter but similar format to the British series. Versions of the programme have also been made in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, and New Zealand. The show was awarded a BAFTA. A running joke in the show is that Davies introduces Horne as "Little Alex Horne".

As of 2025, the British Taskmaster programme has aired twenty series, and also produced four "Champion of Champions" and five "New Year's Treat" specials.

Horne has since branched Taskmaster out to other events outside of television. In 2025, he hosted a series of games in a retirement home in Adderbury, and that same year he partnered up with English Heritage to tour the UK to set out tasks for members of the public to perform. In 2026, he and Davies will tour the United States in a Taskmaster live experience show.

Other work and appearances

In 2011, Horne appeared on BBC One's Celebrity Mastermind; his specialist subject was the comedian Ken Dodd, and he finished in 2nd place with a score of 25. During Comic Relief 2011's 24 Hour Panel People marathon, Horne appeared on the Call My Bluff segment, on a team with Tim Key and Roisin Conaty. Horne also appeared in the TV show on BBC Three called Britain in Bed in 2011. He appeared as a guest on The Matt Lucas Awards on 16 April 2013 where he won "The Bravest Guest" Award.

He has appeared eight times on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, seven as a Dictionary Corner guest, and once as a replacement for Joe Wilkinson. In April 2018, Horne voiced a talking Button in the BBC One's game show The Button. He has appeared twice as a contestant on The Chase on ITV.

Horne, along with Tim Key and Mark Watson, created the YouTube series No More Jockeys during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown in the UK, itself based upon their earlier BBC web series No More Women. Horne also hosts the YouTube channel Bad Golf with John Robins.

In 2025, Horne worked as a producer on a documentary about Chesham United F.C., set to be released on YouTube in episodes in December 2025.

Personal life

Horne married former BBC business journalist Rachel Horne on 1 January 2005, whom he met at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. The couple have three sons. He has lived in Chesham, Buckinghamshire for more than two decades. He previously lived with his Horne Section bandmate Ben Reynolds, including while at college and for a number of years when they owned a house together.

Horne appeared as a contestant on Countdown in August 2008, winning three matches before being defeated.

He is a birdwatcher, which he describes as the perfect activity "for someone who likes sport but is getting too old to play, likes the outdoors and is slightly anal". He is a supporter of Liverpool F.C. and is a director of his local team Chesham United F.C.

In January 2024, Horne was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Warwick.

Filmography

Bibliography

References

References

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