How Richard Gadd went from critics slamming his ‘obsession with gay sex’ to winning an Emmy

Baby Reindeer‘s Richard Gadd started out in comedy in 2008 as a student, but it wasn’t until Netflix commissioned his autobiographical story about stalking that he hit it big.

Now, in an interview with GQ magazine, Gadd, who is bisexual, has spoken about committing all the “cardinal sins in comedy” during his first six months on the circuit, describing his early stuff as “debauched and punky… anti-comedy and in-your-face”.

Gadd’s comedy didn’t start out being about himself. “I wouldn’t call [those early shows] autobiographical, but they would often lean into stuff I was going through. Those shows still had traces of sexual abuse, but they were never done from a deep, meaningful place.”

Reviews of his shows revealed Gadd wasn’t hitting the right spot with his jokes. One 2014 review questioned his “obsession with gay sex” and wondering why he would “always go to these squalid extremes”, not always understanding that he was speaking from personal experience, and offending the star in the process.

“I have been through those things and they’re acting like I haven’t. But I realised I just wasn’t doing it in the right way. It was almost like I was trying to admit to it without admitting to it,” he said.

“I’ve had gigs that were so bad I’ve cried after them as well, he added. “There’s nothing like the feeling of dying on your arse, and there’s nothing like the feeling of smashing the place.” 

It was in 2016 that he realised he had use “art as catharsis” for the trauma he had endured, leading to the creation of his Edinburgh show Monkey See, Monkey Do, which won comedy awards and enjoyed several sell-out runs at Soho Theatre, in London, as well as a UK and European tour – as well as 2019’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Baby Reindeer.

Based on Gadd’s real-life experience of being stalked by a woman, Baby Reindeer proved a huge hit in Edinburgh and was in the process of transferring to London’s West End when COVID-19 hit in 2020.

Over the course of the pandemic, Gadd sold the show to Netflix, with a seven-episode limited series dropping last April.

Gadd has now won six Emmys for Baby Reindeer, including outstanding lead actor in a limited series, outstanding writing for a limited series, and outstanding limited series.

He told GQ that he gave the lead actor gong to his mother because she encouraged him to audition for Macbeth when he was at school, and the writing award to his dad because he “encouraged [him] to beaver away at the laptop”.

Gadd kept the limited series Emmy award for himself but had nowhere to put it when he returned from the ceremony show because his flat was unfurnished.

“I [didn’t even have [a] toilet or shower. I was like: ‘Wow, the bright lights of Hollywood are pretty far away now’.”

Baby Reindeer is available to stream on Netflix now.

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