Jonathan Romesh Ranganathan is a British stand-up comedian, presenter and actor. He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2013 Edinburgh Comedy Awards. He has also made numerous appearances on television comedy panel shows, and in 2016 he co-presented It's Not Rocket Science on ITV, alongside Rachel Riley and Ben Miller. He is known for his deadpan and often self-deprecating comedy. Formerly, he was a regular panellist on , Play to the Whistle, and The Museum of Curiosity. In 2016, he completed his first major tour, Irrational Live, in which he performed in large venues such as the Hammersmith Apollo. Ranganathan also joined A League of Their Own as a regular panellist in 2018, replacing Jack Whitehall. He has presented comedy programmes Judge Romesh and The Ranganation. His autobiography is entitled, Straight Outta Crawley.
Career
Ranganathan started performing as a comedian whilst working as a mathematics teacher. He started presenting Newsjack on Radio 4 Extra in March 2014. He appeared on ' in 2014, during which he presented his homemade vegan chocolate brownies. Ranganathan has been a guest on several episodes of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. He also has appeared on Would I Lie to You?, Holby City, Soccer AM, Russell Howard's Good News, Sweat the Small Stuff, The Last Leg, Virtually Famous, Have I Got News for You, QI, and Mock the Week. He was a contestant on the first series of Taskmaster and also appeared in the third episode of Jon Richardson Grows Up. He also performed at The Royal Variety Performance in 2015. In 2015, he presented a series for BBC Three, Asian Provocateur, in which he travelled to Sri Lanka to explore his ancestral country. In October 2016, the second travel series was aired in which Ranganathan and his mother travel to North America to meet more of his relatives. Ranganathan also joined ' in 2015 as a regular panellist. The show is a spin-off from The Apprentice. In December 2015, he appeared in Josh Widdicombe's sitcom, Josh. In 2016, he co-presented It's Not Rocket Science, a new entertainment series for ITV, alongside Ben Miller and Rachel Riley. In 2017, he became the eleventh co-presenter to John Lloyd on the BBC Radio series, The Museum of Curiosity. In 2018, Ranganathan joined Season 13 of A League of Their Own; starred in his own 10-episode docu-comedy called Just Another Immigrant that premiered on Showtime June 8,, and presented Judge Romesh, an unscripted television show in which he decides the outcome of court cases between a claimant and a defendant. Ranganathan's autobiography, Straight Outta Crawley, was published in 2018.
Personal life
Ranganathan was born in Crawley, West Sussex, to Sri Lankan Tamil parents. He has a younger brother, Dinesh, and was raised in the Hindu faith. He suffers from a right-sided ptosis, which he describes as a "lazy eye" although the lid is affected, not the co-ordination of his eyes. Ranganathan studied mathematics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He taught mathematics at Hazelwick School in Crawley, and The Beacon School, Banstead, Surrey, and was a freestyle rapper under the rap name "Ranga", once reaching the finals of the UK freestyle competition. Ranganathan became a professional comedian in 2012. Ranganathan is vegan, having been vegetarian up until 2013. He is a supporter of Arsenal FC. His first name, stated on Ranganathan’s birth certificate, is Jonathan. Romesh is his middle name. He did not find this out until he started school. During his live show, Irrational, Ranganathan recalled that his parents explained to him that this was because they were concerned his name would otherwise sound too ‘ethnic’ when applying for jobs as an adult. He is married, has three sons, and lives in Crawley. He and his wife Leesa first met when they were both working at Hazelwick School, where she was a drama teacher.
