Phil Wang

Phil Wang works inside a very British format ecosystem and is unusually good at it. He came up through sketch, as a member of the group Daphne, whose BBC Radio 4 series he co-created, and through stand-up, where the reputation was made: a precise, deadpan act built around being Malaysian and British at once and refusing to treat that as either tragic or cute.

The panel circuit is where most people have met him. British comedy runs on these shows and they are harder than they look, because the job is to be funny in ten-second gaps while five other comics attempt the same thing. Wang's method is patience and a very still face, which lands him in exactly the moments the loudest person in the room has just vacated. He hosted a podcast with fellow comic Pierre Novellie until 2025, which is where the longer, more argumentative version of him lives.

Screen acting is the newer strand and so far the smaller one. He plays Colin in Wonka, a supporting part in a large studio musical, and voices a vending machine in Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. Neither asks a great deal of him, which is normal for a stand-up at this stage. The interesting question is whether anybody writes him something that uses the stillness rather than the jokes.