Tim Renkow

Tim Renkow (born 1989) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He is best known for playing the leading role of Tim in the British black comedy television series Jerk (2019-2023), which he also co-wrote. In 2022, Renkow received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance. He was born in Mexico City and grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, later attending art school in Memphis, Tennessee.

In Memphis, at age nineteen, Renkow began performing stand-up comedy. He continued in New York City before moving to the United Kingdom to study creative writing in 2012, and participated in the Chortle Student Comedy Award Final at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2014, he performed his debut show, At Least Hell Has Ramps, and was nominated for Chortle's Best Newcomer Award. His first television appearance was in 2016, in an episode of the BBC Three sketch show Comedy Feeds titled "A Brief History of Tim," and in 2017 he appeared in four episodes of Bobby & Harriet Get Married.

In February 2019, Series 1 of Jerk was released by BBC Three and subsequently replayed on BBC One, with a second series airing in 2021. In April 2019, Renkow performed a one-man show at London's Soho Theatre entitled Tim Renkow Tries to Punch Down. In 2021, he was announced as a member of the U.K. jury for BAFTA's Breakthrough Initiative, and he appears in two episodes of BBC's Live at the Apollo, in series 16 and as host in series 19. Renkow has cerebral palsy, and in September 2020 married fellow comedian Spring Day.