John William Oliver was born on 23 April 1977 in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, England, the eldest of four children of Jim Oliver, a school headmaster and social worker, and Carole Oliver, a music teacher. He grew up in Bedford, attending Mark Rutherford School, before studying English at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Footlights.
After graduating in 1998, he built a stand-up comedy career in the UK, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe and co-hosting the podcast The Bugle with Andy Zaltzman. In 2006 he moved to the US to join The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as senior British correspondent, winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for writing before guest-hosting the show in 2013.
In 2014 he launched Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO. It is a weekly satirical show combining comedy with investigative journalism on underreported issues, for which he has won numerous Primetime Emmy and Peabody Awards. The show is available on Sky Comedy in the UK. He also had a recurring role on NBC’s Community and voiced Zazu in Disney’s 2019 The Lion King remake.
He married Kate Norley, a U.S. Army veteran, in October 2011, and the couple have two sons. Oliver became a U.S. citizen in December 2019 while retaining British citizenship, and continues to host Last Week Tonight, renewed through 2027.
