The BBC New Comedy Awards has announced that award-winning comedian Dan Tiernan and actor and comedian Kiell Smith-Bynoe will join this year's judging panel alongside host Amy Gledhill.

Applications for this year's competition are now open, with aspiring comedians from across the UK invited to submit their entries. The BBC New Comedy Awards has helped launch the careers of some of the UK's biggest comedy names and continues to champion the next generation of stand-up talent.

The overall winner will receive a £1,000 cash prize, alongside a paid commission to write and perform a 30-minute audio pilot, mentored by a BBC Comedy Commissioner.

Kiell Smith-Bynoe is an actor, writer and comedian best known for Ghosts, Stath Lets Flats, Dreamland and The Great British Sewing Bee, as well as Channel 4's award-winning sketch show Red Flag.

Dan Tiernan is the winner of the BBC New Comedy Award and British Comedian of the Year 2022, and has become one of the UK's fastest-rising stand-ups with appearances on Comedy Central and Rosie Jones's Disability Comedy Extravaganza.

About BBC New Comedy Awards:

Since launching in 1995, the BBC New Comedy Awards has helped kickstart the careers of many of the UK’s best-loved comedians. Previous winners include Alan Carr, Tom Allen, Lucy Beaumont, Josie Long, Nina Conti and Rhod Gilbert, while past runners-up Peter Kay, Lee Mack, Russell Howard, Sarah Millican and Joe Lycett have all gone on to achieve great success.

Enter now here. The deadline for entering the talent search is 23:59 on Sunday 19th July 2026.