Ryan Reynolds to Headline Just for Laughs London Comedy Fest

Ryan Reynolds is set to headline Just For Laughs’ inaugural comedy festival in London.

Just for Laughs London, set to run March 2-5, 2023, will see Reynolds take part in an informal conversation about his career as a Hollywood actor, producer and co-owner of U.K.’s Wrexham soccer club, with Deadpool 2 co-star Rob Delaney moderating.

As Just for Laughs crosses the pond in partnership with AEG, the Montreal-based chuckle fest will bring its trademark comedy club and arena shows and celebrity in-conversation and panel format. The four-day event will include U.K. TV host Graham Norton and The Duchess creator Katherine Ryan emceeing gala shows, and Richard Curtis, co-founder of Red Nose Day, hosting his own showcase of comedy talent.

Other stand-up show hosts include Aisling Bea, creator and star of Channel Four’s This Way Up, while Reggie Watts, Randy Feltface and Adam Buxton will bring solo shows to London. And The Office star Craig Robinson will do his own in-conversation appearance at Just for Laughs London, while also performing on stage with his nine-piece band, The Nasty Delicious.  

Run by a consortium led by ICM and Howie Mandel, Just for Laughs typically hosts global stand-up talent that were in part discovered over the years at the Montreal comedy fest as Hollywood talent scouts and execs looked for comics to appear in sitcoms, movies or host TV game shows. That includes Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer, Ali Wong, Kumail Nanjiani, Pete Davidson, Colin Jost and Dave Chappelle.

Just for Laughs has also brought its comedy-festival concept to Toronto, Vancouver and Austin in North America and Sydney, Australia. At the same time, key to the success of the comedy festival’s talent lineups have been British comedians like Jimmy Carr, Eddie Izzard, Tommy Tiernan, Nish Kumar and Sarah Millican.

“Every year, without a doubt, the British contingent of comedians at JFL Montreal are one of the highlights of our event, which I credit to the comedians’ distinctiveness, originality and a point of view unlike any other. Now is the perfect time for us to bring our festival to shine the international spotlight on the incredible UK scene, while also bringing global comedy stars to join forces in producing one epic comedy celebration,” Just for Laughs president Bruce Hills said in a statement.