Wikipedia

Tom Rosenthal (actor)

For other people with the same name, see Tom Rosenthal.

Thomas Alan Smith Rosenthal (born 14 January 1988) is an English actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his television roles as Jonny Goodman in Friday Night Dinner (2011–2020) and Marcus Gallo in Plebs (2013–2022). He has written and performed three stand-up comedy shows: Child of Privilege (2011), благодаря (2013), and Manhood (2019–2020), the latter of which received critical acclaim at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Tom Rosenthal
Rosenthal at the 2013 British Comedy Awards
Birth nameThomas Alan Smith Rosenthal
Born (1988-01-14) 14 January 1988 (age 36)
London, England
Medium
  • Stand-up
  • television
Alma materKing's College London
Years active2007–present
Relative(s)Jim Rosenthal (father)
Oscar Levy (great-grandfather)
Websitetomrosenthal.net

Early life

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Thomas Alan Smith Rosenthal was born in the Hammersmith area of London on 14 January 1988, the son of Newsnight producer Christine (née Smith) and television sports presenter Jim Rosenthal.[1] He is of German-Jewish descent through his father,[2][3][4] with one of his paternal great-grandfathers being German-Jewish physician and writer Oscar Levy.[5] He was once dubbed a "super-smart child of privilege" by the London Evening Standard.[6] He grew up in Cookham, Berkshire,[1] and went to Reading Blue Coat School[7] before studying philosophy at King's College London.[8] His early comedic influences were the TV shows Spaced, Brass Eye, and Da Ali G Show.[9]

Career

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Rosenthal performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010

In 2011, Rosenthal was cast as Jonny Goodman in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner,[10] alongside Simon Bird, Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, and Mark Heap.[11] The sitcom focused on the weekly Shabbat dinner in the middle-class secular Jewish Goodman family in North London. Rosenthal played the younger son and he and Greig are the only two main cast members who have Jewish roots in real life. The sixth and final series set the record for the highest audience for any comedy on Channel 4 or E4 for 16-to-34 year olds with a 49.3% share, and the average audience for the series was 3.9 million viewers.[12] Following the death of Ritter in 2021, it was announced that the show would not continue.[13][14][15] To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the start of the show, an anniversary special was aired in May 2021.[16]

In 2013, he was cast as Marcus in the ITV sitcom Plebs. The sitcom is a comedy set in Ancient Rome, following the main characters of Marcus, Stylax, and Grumio.[17] In 2020, it was announced that a sixth series would not be commissioned and instead a feature-length special would be released.[18]

In 2014, he created and starred in a comedy pilot for BBC iPlayer with Naz Osmanoglu, entitled Flat TV, which was later commissioned into a mini-series.[19]

In 2015, he played a brief role as Gary Thorp in the ITV drama series Broadchurch.

In 2019, he played Private Pike in Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes, a recreation of three missing episodes of the BBC sitcom Dad's Army. That same year, his third stand-up show Manhood received critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.[20]

Personal life

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Rosenthal was in a relationship with TV and radio presenter, Vick Hope from 2013 to 2017.[21][22] He is a fan of Arsenal F.C..[9]

Rosenthal said of his Jewish roots in 2011, "I get called a Jewish comedian and I'm totally fine with that, but I can't really inform either of the performances I've done this year with a Jewish background. But I have learnt a lot about the culture and it has given me great pride to do so."[23]

In 2019, Rosenthal began to speak out about his negative experience with circumcision and his opposition to it,[24] as well as speaking about how the experience intersected with his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder.[24] He stated, "The truth is that my parents were put in charge of my welfare and they did something to me that can never be remedied. [...] The last proper Jew in our family was four generations back. My dad was circumcised for medical reasons, which is another bloody rabbit hole because a lot of those cases are misdiagnosed. [...] The aim is to recognise that if this has happened to you and you feel fine about it, that's great. But if you don't feel fine, which I don't, then you're justified."[24]

Rosenthal has questioned whether he is autistic, saying "I do clearly have quite a lot of the behavioral traits that people who are diagnosed as autistic do have". He also explained his friends believe him to be autistic. While taking part in BBC One show, Pilgrimage, model, Christine McGuinness who is the mother of three autistic children and is autistic herself, discussed with Rosenthal, that she believed him to be autistic as well.[25]

Filmography

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Television

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Year Title Role Notes
2013 Breathless Sam Rothe 3 episodes
2014 Comedy Feeds Tom Episode: "Flat TV"
2015 Broadchurch Gary Thorp 2 episodes
2015 Horrible Histories Alfred the Great Episode: "Awesome Alfred The Great"
2014–2016 Flat TV Tom 5 episodes; also writer
2015–2017 Drunk History Drunk Storyteller 4 episodes
2017 Absolutely Fine Tom 9 episodes
2018 Roast Battle Himself Episode: #2.1
2019 The Crystal Maze Himself Episode: #9.2
2019 The One Show Himself 2 episodes
2013–2019 Sunday Brunch Himself 5 episodes
2016–2019 Thunderbirds Are Go Brandon Berrenger (voice) 2 episodes
2019 Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes Private Pike 3 episodes
2013–2019 Plebs Marcus 38 episodes
2011–2020 Friday Night Dinner Jonny Goodman 37 episodes
2020 Ibiza Weekender Narrator 10 episodes
2022 The Weakest Link Himself New Year's Eve Special
2021–2022 Richard Osman's House of Games Himself 10 episodes
2022 Red Rose Douglas Sensei Episode: "Manchester Innit"
2022 Lloyd of the Flies Lloyd B. Fly (voice) 26 episodes
2022 Plebs: Soldiers of Rome Marcus Television film
2023 Pointless Celebrities Himself Episode: #16.6
2023 Steph's Packed Lunch Himself Episode: #4.51
2023 Adventures of ArachnoFly ArachnoFly 16 episodes

Film

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Year Title Role Notes
2013 Scar Tissue Mike Hunt
2014 Benny & Jolene Tommy
2016 Bridget Jones's Baby Josh
2016 Elderflower Felix Short film
2018 Under The Weather Edward Cirrus (voice) Short film; also writer
2020 Settlers Ian Short film
2023 Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre Trent

Stand-up comedy shows

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Year Title Notes
2011 Child of Privilege Written and Performed by Tom
2013 благодаря
2019–2020 Manhood

Achievements

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References

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  1. ^ a b James Dunlop (20 February 2010). "Television football presenter Jim Rosenthal's son lands plum Channel 4 role". This is local London. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  2. ^ Barker, Nicolas (13 November 2005). "ICSM Online Journal Obituaries; Albi Rosenthal". The Jewish Music Institute. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  3. ^ Nicolas Barker (22 January 2008). "Maud Rosenthal: Oscar Levy's 'daughter-secretary'". The Independent. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  4. ^ Simon Round (2 February 2008). "How Jewish is Jim Rosenthal?" (PDF). The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  5. ^ Chris Kearney. "Levy Maud Ruth genealogy". blankgenealogy.com. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  6. ^ "My ridiculously successful career: the super-smart child of privilege". Evening Standard. London. 14 January 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  7. ^ "RBCS – Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  8. ^ "My ridiculously successful career: the super-smart child of privilege". Evening Standard. London. 15 January 2014.
  9. ^ a b Amira Hashish (15 January 2014). "My ridiculously successful career: the super-smart child of privilege Tom Rosenthal". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  10. ^ "Tamsin Greig and Pulling's Paul Ritter to star in Channel 4 comedy". The Guardian. 12 February 2010.
  11. ^ "Friday Night Dinner (TV Series 2011–2020)". IMDb. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  12. ^ "Channel 4 announce Friday Night Dinner (w/t)". Channel 4. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  13. ^ "No More Episodes of Friday Night Dinner Are Currently Planned". ladbible.com. 16 January 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  14. ^ Toby Moses (6 April 2021). "Paul Ritter: Friday Night Dinner star dies of brain tumour at 54". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  15. ^ Rachel Aroesti (26 May 2021). "Farewell Friday Night Dinner: the joyous Jewish sitcom that became a national treasure". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  16. ^ Ella Kemp (13 May 2021). "'Friday Night Dinner' anniversary special to air later this month". NME. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  17. ^ Luke Holland (20 September 2014). "Plebs: 'Ancient Rome allows us to bring in gladiators and orgies'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  18. ^ Lauren Morris (30 April 2020). "ITV2's Plebs will end with a feature-length special". The Radio Times. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  19. ^ "Flat TV". BBC iPlayer. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  20. ^ "Manhood Tour Dates". Tom Rosenthal professional web site.
  21. ^ "Vick Hope says break up with Tom Rosenthal had nothing to do with Strictly curse". Radio Times. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  22. ^ Wiggins, Dan (15 November 2022). "Tom Rosenthal's life from West London childhood to very famous dad". MyLondon. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  23. ^ Kari Rosenberg (16 June 2011). "Tom turns into a political football". TotallyJewish.com. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  24. ^ a b c Ryan Gilbey (13 August 2019). "'Whenever you have sex, it's on your mind': Tom Rosenthal on turning circumcision into comedy". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  25. ^ "Tom Rosenthal: 'My parents think I'm crazy... In the proudest way'". The Express. 27 March 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  26. ^ "Chortle Student Comedy Award finalists 2009 : About Chortle 2009 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". Chortle. 27 August 2009. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
  27. ^ "The British Comedy Awards - The British Comedy Awards - Winners 2011". The British Comedy Awards. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
  28. ^ "Mercury Rising: Marissa Burgess reviews the Leicester Comedian of the Year". Chortle. 20 February 2011.
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