Rhiannon Shaw

Rhiannon Shaw is a stand-up, character comedian and writer from Wolverhampton.

She is currently a writer for Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live UK.

A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Rhiannon started her comedy career writing and performing as a member of the Cambridge Footlights. In 2018, she directed a production of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’ which toured China, South Korea and Japan.

Rhiannon is a sought-after gag writer, and has written for Phil Wang, Rhys James, Glenn Moore, Ania Magliano, Ian Smith, Stuart Laws, Rob Copland and many more. Her writing credits include Have I Got News For You, Late Night Mash, Unacceptable, Radio 4’s The Now Show, The News Quiz and DMs Are Open.

In 2024, Rhiannon was a finalist in the BAFTA-Rocliffe New Writing Competition with her pilot ‘Front of House’. In 2022 she won the David Nobbs Writing Memorial Trust New Comedy Writing Competition with her time-travel comedy ‘Past Tense’.

As a stand-up, Rhiannon reached the televised regional semi-finals of the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2022 and the semi-finals of the Funny Women Awards and the 2Northdown New Act Competition 2021. She performed her debut character comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, ‘Wedding Night’, and performed at the curated Machynlleth and Aberystwyth Comedy Festivals. The Wee Review called it ‘a fun, breezy show for which you won’t regret sending an RSVP to confirm your attendance.’

‘a cunning comic mind’ – Chortle

Rhiannon’s eye for a funny image is completely instinctive. Anyone can learn how to write a joke but conjuring a silly idea is much harder, and Rhiannon thinks in them. She could easily have written for seasons 1-7 of the Simpsons and there’s no higher praise than that. – Rhys James

‘So funny and just so original. If you’ve laughed at a comedian’s joke on TV in the past few years, chances are Rhiannon wrote it.’ – Glenn Moore