Tony Roche

Writer-producer Tony Roche collaborated with Armando Iannucci on many of his television comedy projects, including the award-winning "The Thick of It" (BBC 4, 2005-2012) and "Veep" (HBO, 2012-), among other series. Roche graduated from Warwick University with a degree in English and pursued a career as a stand-up comedian, which led to writing assignment for radio comedy programs like "The Alan Davies Show" (BBC Radio 4, 1998) and "The Sunday Format" (BBC Radio 4, 1999-2001, 2003-2004), as well as his own radio series, "The World of Pub" (BBC Radio 4, 1998-1999), which he later adapted for television (BBC 2, 2001). In 2003, he teamed with fellow "Sunday Format" writer Simon Blackwell to contribute material for Armando Iannucci's "Gash" (Channel 4, 2003), a nightly review program that took a comic look at current news events. Roche would then go on to co-write all four seasons of Iannucci's celebrated political satire "The Thick of It" and earn an Oscar nomination with Iannucci, Blackwell and Jesse Armstrong for "In the Loop" (2009), a spin-off feature based on the series. While working on "Thick," Roche wrote for a number of other TV comedies, including the BAFTA-nominated mockumentary "Cast Offs" (Channel 4, 2009), as well as the made-for-television feature "Holy Flying Circus" (BBC, 2011), which detailed the conflict between the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus and conservative figures over their film "Life of Brian" (1979). In 2012, he reteamed with Iannucci to write and co-produce "Veep," which earned him a 2014 Writers Guild of Award and 2015 Emmy for Best Comedy series.