Armando Iannucci

As one of the most significant voices in British comedy at the dawn of the 21st century, Armando Iannucci made a name for himself with his unique brand of witty political satire. After earning a degree in English Literature from Oxford, Iannucci followed his passion for comedy and entered the world of radio broadcasting with his show "On the Hour," a satire of news programming. Iannucci helped develop several character for the show, most notably Steve Coogan's bumbling sports reporter Alan Partridge; the pair spun that character off into two television series, "Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge" (BBC 1994-95) and "I'm Alan Partridge" (BBC 1997-2002). After "On the Hour" spawned its own tremendously successful spin-off television series, "The Day Today" (BBC 1994), Iannucci found himself producing and writing several different television projects while keeping himself out of the limelight. But with his deeply personal and ambitiously experimental series "The Armando Iannucci Shows" (BBC 2001), Iannucci showed audiences what the world looked like through his eyes. Despite the show's low ratings in the wake of September 11, it helped land Iannucci his biggest and most critically-acclaimed project yet: the award-winning comedy series "The Thick of It" (BBC 2005-2012), a hilariously profane satire of British politics starring Peter Capaldi as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker. The show was such a success that Iannucci co-wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated satire "In the Loop" (2009) using the same characters in a political standoff with their counterparts in the United States. That success led to "Veep" (HBO 2012-), another political satire, this time starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as tone-deaf and hapless Vice President Selina Meyer. The series was an immediate critical and commercial success, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy for its fourth season after three consecutive nominations. While working on "Veep," Iannucci revisited one of his most popular early characters, co-writing Coogan's big-screen return to Alan Partridge, "Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa" (2013).