Richard Travis Hall

Rich Hall (born June 10, 1954), born Richard Travis Hall, is an American comedian, writer, director, actor, and musician who first came to prominence as a sketch comedian in the 1980s. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, he attended Western Carolina University from 1972 to 1975 but did not graduate. Early in his career he performed as a street comedian with a suitcase and stand, traveling the college circuit and performing impromptu skits for gathering crowds.

Hall's first professional work was as a writer and performer on the original daytime David Letterman Show, for which he won the 1981 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement - Writing. He became a cast member on the sketch series Fridays during its third and final season, then co-wrote and starred in Not Necessarily the News from 1983 until 1990, where he coined the term "sniglet" to describe newly created words. He was also a regular on Saturday Night Live for the show's tenth season (1984-1985), becoming the only Fridays cast member to also join SNL. In 1986 he had his own Showtime special, Vanishing America, and he hosted Rich Hall's Onion World during The Comedy Channel's 1990-91 season.

After winning a Perrier Comedy Award in 2000 using the character of Tennessee country musician Otis Lee Crenshaw, Hall became popular in the United Kingdom, regularly appearing on QI and other panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats and Have I Got News for You. He has had four BBC TV series of his own, including Rich Hall's Fishing Show (2003) and Rich Hall's Cattle Drive (2006), and has written and presented 90-minute BBC Four documentaries about American film genres and culture, including How the West Was Lost, The Dirty South and Inventing the Indian. He divides his time between a small ranch outside Livingston, Montana, and a flat in London.