Rich Hall Biography

Fast Facts

• Was nominated for four CableACE Awards for Writing a Comedy Series for "Not Necessarily the News" in 1983, 1984, 1985, and 1987
• Created the alter ego Otis Lee Crenshaw, a cranky, white trash old man who is described as "a loving tribute and sharply critical of the U․S․A․" and for which he won a Perrier Award, a Time Out Comedy Award, and an Adelaide Fringe Festival Award
• Attended Western Carolina University and graduated from Western Washington State College with a degree in Journalism
• Moved to New York City in 1979, where he performed at The Comic Strip and The Improv, and was later invited to write for "The David Letterman Show․"
• Worked as a newspaper reporter before deciding to become a street performer, doing shows at local open mic nights and college campuses
• Best known as a writer and cast member on "Saturday Night Live" and "Not Necessarily the News․"
• Wrote and hosted four BBC documentaries about American film culture called "How the West was Lost," "The Dirty South," "Continental Drifters," and "Inventing the Indian․"
• Moved to the UK in the early 1990s, where he frequently appears on comedy panel and quiz shows like "Never Mind the Buzzcocks," "QI," and "Have I Got News for You․"
• Invented the word sniglet on an episode of "Not Necessarily the News" in 1983, where he did segments about "any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should․"
• Does impersonations of Vince McMahon, Doug Flutie, Doug Henning, and Mark Goodman, among others