Sam Simmons (comedian)


Sam Simmons is an Australian comedian, actor, and radio and TV presenter. He has toured extensively with his stand-up shows, as well as many appearances on TV in Australia, the US, and the UK. He has won and been nominated for many awards, and won the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer in 2014.
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Early life and education

Sam Simmons was born in in Adelaide, South Australia.
He was raised in Adelaide by a single working mother, and has hinted in his shows that he was somewhat neglected as a child. His best friend described his childhood as "troubled". Going through a tough time as a 13-year-old, he attempted suicide.
He watched a lot of The Goodies, Monkey, and Benny Hill as a child, and says was also very influenced by John Cleese's character in Fawlty Towers, Basil Fawlty: "Rage and silliness combined. What a mix!".

Career

Live

Simmons' first performed comedy in 2001, at a benefit show for a friend whose handbag had been stolen. Performing as a duo with another young man, they presented Smutty and Pert, like Ernie and Bert . Later, working at Greasy Joe's in St Kilda, he would perform for the patrons of the café, who were a diverse audience.
He then began to perform in comedy rooms, "just doing my own thing", which was not stand-up, according to Simmons. Janet McLeod gave him a contract to perform for two months at her Local Laughs night.
In 2003, he presented The Steve Promise Story at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
He performed at TEDxSydney in 2014. In the same year, he developed and performed his show Death of a Sails-Man, which one reviewer described as "an extremely quirky one-man monologue... a man live on stage having a breakdown, singing, reflecting and joking with his sub-conscious".
His 2015 award-winning show, Spaghetti for Breakfast featured his usual "silly" pieces, followed by a deeply personal reference to how he nearly committed suicide as a young adolescent.
When in Los Angeles, he did regular shows with Dr Brown, and they worked together on developing a TV series. In 2015, they performed together at the Soho Theatre in London, in a show called Ceremony, which Burgers described as "two idiots playing with the idea of ceremony".
In March 2016, Simmons performed a new show, Not a People Person, at MICF.
After living for some time across three cities (Sydney, Los Angeles, and London, he announced early in 2019 that he was going to quit touring with live comedy for a while after his current commitments with his new show, 26 Things You're Doing Wrong with Sam Simmons, although still intending to do some acting and write TV scripts. At several comedy festivals in 2019, Simmons performed a new show, 26 Things You're Doing Wrong with Sam Simmons about unconventional life hacks. In December 2019, he performed for 10 nights at the Soho Theatre in London, and in 2020 was working on a solo show called FUNT there.
In 2021, he performed a show in the Spiegeltent at the Adelaide Fringe entitled Sam Simmons is Putting Things on His Knee to Raise Awareness for People Who Not have Good Knees, based on fictional stories about celebrities. In 2022, he performed Be a Verb at the Garden of Unearthly Delights in the Adelaide Fringe.
In March 2024, Simmons performed his new show Man With A Fork In A World Full Of Soup at the Adelaide Fringe, which earned good reviews.
John Bailey wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald'' in 2016: "...an hour with Simmons is a tour of the comic spectrum: physical comedy, musical comedy, sketch and character work, puns, one-liners, shaggy dog stories, mime, crowd work, visual gags, observational comedy, meta-comedy and more, all delivered with the kind of pummelling intensity...".

TV and radio

Simmons has also made regular appearances on TV since 2003, as a stand-up comedian, as a guest, in comedy sketch shows, and as an actor. Network appearances include NBC, BBC, Channel 4, Comedy Central, ABC, and other Australian networks.
He appeared on Conan in the US in 2013, after moving to Los Angeles in June of that year. Host Conan O'Brien called him "a very strange fellow". Simmons said that the US show allowed him greater freedom in presenting his "weird" stuff. He has also appeared on another American TV show, Adam Devine's House Party, as well as the British shows 8 Out of 10 Cats, Room 101.
On radio, Simmons started as a regular guest on the morning show The Pinch on Triple R in 2003. He became a regular host on Triple J radio station from 2005.
He was a regular guest host and contributor on JTV from 2007 to 2009 This led to his first television show, Monkey with Murray Foote, in 2009.
In 2012, Simmons followed up with a sketch-style TV series Problems, with a tone more similar to that of his surrealist stand-up shows. After moving from Adelaide to Los Angeles, in 2013 he filmed a US pilot in Albuquerque with David Quirk, described by Simmons as "a reality show about animals".
In 2017, he provided the voice of Mr Wallaby in Peppa Pig.
In 2020, he appeared in the Australian comedy series LOL: Last one Laughing.
Since 2022 and as of 2024, Simmons has hosted the podcast Niche as Quiche, a regular deep-dive into various niche subjects and stream-of-consciousness topics.
Simmons has appeared on the comedy quiz show Dirty Laundry Live.
On July 23, 2025, Sam Simmons appeared in Episode 15 of The 24 Hour Check-In, reviewing the Town and Country Motel in Strathfield, New South Wales. The episode features Simmons exploring the motel and surrounding area with the show's host.

Awards and nominations

Awards

Nominations

Personal life

Simmons married Roslyn Durnford. In February 2019, Simmons revealed that he was father to a baby, and wanted to spend some time enjoying family life.
He said that he loves LA, with its "weird hippie thing" where he attends yoga classes and does not drink alcohol, whereas in other places he would drink too much.
He has synaesthesia.
He loves animals, and has considered a career in animal husbandry or zookeeping. He said that he would love to make animal documentaries, like David Attenborough. His oldest friend, Stuart Peevor, described him as a "generous" and "warm" person.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
2022The Strange ChoresBad Tony 14 episodes
2021BlueyBob 1 episode
2021Stand up for Mental HealthSelfTV Specials
2021WakefieldPete Seamen8 episodes
2020Drunk History AustraliaTanky1 episode
2018-20Hughesy, We Have a ProblemSelf5 episodes
2018-19SquintersLukas12 episodes
2019Mr BlackBarry Donato1 episode
2017Get Krack!nCreepy Dude3 episodes
2017Peppa Pig: My First Cinema ExperienceMr Wallaby
2016Peppa PigMr Wallaby 1 episode
2015-16Drunk HistoryVarious2 episodes
2015Sky Comedy Christmas ShortsJoke Writer1 episode
2015No ActivityGlen2 episodes
2015RottersEarsTV Movie
2015Sam Simmons: WallstudSam3 episodes
2015Alt TabTime of Death Man
2014It's A DateRay1 episode
2014Ad NauseumHamish
2012ProblemsSam / Uncle Warrick4 episodes
2010Fail HimselfDVD release
2009The Urban MonkeyMurray Foote11 episodes