RTS Award Nominees Announced! A great year for Comedy!

The nominees for the RTS awards, one of Britain's most prestigious, have been announced - and it's a strong night for comedy, with all three of those nominated in the Breakthrough category being so for comedic performances. If you seek inspiration and motivation, just look below for our rundown of the comedy awards.
​

Irish actress Aisling Bea is up for the Breakthrough Award ​for starring in (and writing!) in the series This Way Up, a series showcasing the trials and tribulations of a a young English teacher in London. The show takes a hilarious yet emotionally-affecting look at the ways in which city life can wear down even the most stubborn and motivated among us, maintained by Bea's heartfelt and honest performance; the actress and writer has never been ashamed of wearing her heart on her sleeve, understanding that laughter and tears are close bedfellows.
​

American comedian Tim Renkow, also up for the Breakthrough Award​, has propelled himself into the list with his starring role in the gut-busting and deeply uncomfortable Jerk, based on his own experiences and stand-up comedy; a series which turns stereotypes and representations of  disability in art on their head by portraying Renkow himself, who has cerebral palsy, as a truly horrendous man, always looking for ways to use his condition to his advantage (usually to the detriment of others). Not for the feint of heart or humour!
​

The second series of BBC's Motherland, now in it's second series, is up for multiple awards, including the final Breakthrough Award nomination for Tanya Moodie and a Best Comedy Performance (Female) nomination for Diane Horgan. Motherland concerns the bitter social warfare that happens between a group of working mothers; Moodie plays Meg, a high-flying business executive who releases the stress of a busy worklife and busier homelife through explosive partying, while Horgan plays Liz, a blunt figure of chaos who proves unpopular with the more successful mothers. A rowdy, raucous experience.
​

Also up for multiple awards is Channel 4's Derry Girls, a sitcom set in an unlikely time and place - Northern Ireland during the most intense period of the troubles. The daring series follows Erin Quinn, played by Saoirse-Monica Jackson (another Best Comedy Performance (Female) nominee), a girl with a dark sense of humour that often comes at odds with her conservative and fraught environment. The uncompromising humour of the series with regards to a situation that doesn't seem to have much to laugh at has earned the series a Best Scripted Comedy nomination.
​

Derry Girls has tough competition in both of these categories, however; Fleabag, written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, now world famous and writing the next James Bond film, has also been nominated for both Best Scripted Comedy and Best Comedy Performance (Female). The series barely needs introduction, but if you've been living under a rock, Waller-Bridge...in fact, we won't tell you. You just have to see it for yourself.
​

Rounding off the Best Scripted Comedy nominations is Stath Lets Flats,a family sitcom about an inept letting agent trying his hardest to work with his father, who makes him look positively competent by comparison. The nominations for Best Comedy Performance (Male) are going to Ncuti Gatwa for his endearing performance as Eric in Netflix's brutally honest coming of age comedy Sex Education, Youssef Kerkour for his role in the social satire Home as Sami, a Syrian immigrant discovered hiding in the boot of a middle-class family after a holiday in France, and Alex Murphy & Chris Walley for their trouble-making double act in the dark yet heartfelt Irish teen comedy The Young Offenders. 
​

Whew! With a line-up like this, it'll be difficult to choose the best of the lot - and this is just the awards for comedy! Good luck to everyone; we'll be watching with attentive eyes, for sure.

Want to be a strong screen actor like these nominees? Join IPM Acting Academy today to get your career started in the Television & Film Industry!