Andrew Stanley

Andrew Stanley (born 1980) is an Irish comedian and television personality best known for his appearances as host of the hit RTE 2 TV show I Dare Ya. He has also featured in Just for Laughs, RTE's The Cafe, Podge and Rodge, Liffey Laughs and Tubridy Tonight. The Scotsman newspaper described him as "a comic so clearly destined for the top, but with astonishingly good observational material delivered and timed to perfection there's no doubt about the destination of the young Irishman's career."

Born in 1980 in Swords, County Dublin, Stanley attended St. Finians Community College and worked as a computer programmer before trying out stand-up for the first time in 2000, after attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Working his way around the Irish stand-up circuit, he began playing in rooms such as the Comedy Cellar, which he would later go on to run, and the Laughter Lounge, as well as clubs around the country and in the UK. He featured in a number of TV programmes in Ireland and the UK including Young, Gifted and Broke and Take The Mic, both on ITV.

Stanley has appeared at numerous festivals worldwide as both a solo stand-up and as part of comedy groups. He has made ten appearances at The Cat Laughs in Kilkenny, including two sold out solo shows in 2010 and 2011, and made five appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with hour-long shows. These included a show with Australian comic Damian Clark called I Dare Ya, which went on to become a hit TV show on RTE 2, and a late-night show called Mish Mash, which he co-hosted with Irish comics Fred Cooke and Neil Hickey. Internationally, he has performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Adelaide Fringe Festival, and the prestigious Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, where he performed alongside Ardal O'Hanlon, Colm O'Regan and Neil Delamere as part of the O'Comics show.