AboutOLD

Hello. I’m Rich Keeble writing in the third person as if someone else was doing it.

Rich Keeble is an actor, musician, presenter, and voice artist. He studied acoustics and wanted to be a rock star, singing and playing guitar in one band, playing keyboards in another, and drums in two more. He did tour a bit, release some music and even play live on the proper radio a few times, but in the end it didn’t work out and he turned to acting and comedy. Now he’s doing music again. Anyway, let’s split this up a bit:

 

Television/Commercials
Rich’s first appearance on TV was in Lee Nelson’s Well Good Show on BBC3 in 2010, interviewing Simon Brodkin’s Jason Bent character. Since then he’s regularly starred in sketches on Alan Carr’s New Year Specstacular (Channel 4), and The Last Leg (Channel 4).  More recently he’s appeared in Green Wing creator Victoria Pile’s prime time ITV/Netflix sitcom The Delivery Man (ITV) with Darren Boyd, Paddy McGuiness and Aisling Bea, as well as guest starring in an episode of The Rebel (Gold) with Simon Callow. He’s seriously freaked out some people in a lift on a couple of episodes of Dom Joly’s Fool Britannia (ITV), had an awkward conversation with Angelos Epithemiou (Dan Skinner) in the Feeling Nuts Comedy Night (Channel 4) and appeared with Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Leslie Joseph in Birds of a Feather (ITV), directed by BAFTA winner Nick Wood (watched by nearly 8 million viewers you know).  He also appearedas himself/a talking head on Animal Antics (Viasat Nature).

Topcashback

Rich is occasionally recognised and shouted at in pubs or on the street from having starred in a number of high profile TV commercials. Since 2015 he has been seen starring in the Topcashback adverts, first sitting on the hippo, and as of 2017, doing a lot of walking.  In 2014 he starred in the first of a series of comic adverts for McDonald’s and the year before was in a recurring ident on the BBC (the one with the panda) where he worked with director Victoria Pile for the first time. He did pop up in the Lidl Christmas advert in 2015, although they cut most of what he did.

The Rebel (with Simon Callow)
The Delivery Man

Rich also had a significant role in a semi-scripted teaser for E4, The Lovebomb, directed by Made in Chelsea’s John Pereira, and appeared in a pilot called Losing the Plot  that also starred Andrew Harwood Mills and Ian Cullen (Z Cars). He played the lead in another sitcom

Birds of a Feather

pilot called Rules of Life which was shopped around by by Catherine Bailey Productions (Life of Riley, Quick Cuts) before being re-edited in a web series.

 

Online
Rich co-writes his own semi-scripted comedy online show Rich Keeble Vanity Project (see video page) which actually won a few awards and got nominated for a load more. Rich and the team are currently in talks with to develop it for television. He also co-wrote the award winning All in the Method web series with Luke Kaile, as well as The Kaile & Keeble/Keeble & Kaile Sketch Show.

He was a regular in Hunka Wunda, an online sketch show written by David Bussell, Matthew Stott and Madeleine Brettingham (IT Crowd, Mitchell & Webb) and also featuring comedy circuit familiar faces Mark Davison (Mr Susie), Kathryn Bond (That Pair), Jayde Adams (Funny Women winner 2014), Holly Burn, Ali Brice and many more. He appeared in a couple of episodes of Comedy Central’s Bad Snappers and also wrote and starred in the comedy short film A Slightly Exaggerated Reenactment of a Voicemail I Never Actually Left for Tom Lenk.

Film
Recently Rich starred in dark comedy indie feature Criminal Audition,

Rich with Tom Lenk
Rich with American actor, Tom Lenk

provided the voice of a radio DJ in Finding Fatimah, and shot a small role in a Michael Caine film (TBA 2018). He has also done some “serious” acting in indie features like the award-winning Eva’s Diamond, where he played a violent gangster who actually gets involved with kicking a man to death, The Addicted (retitled “Rehab” in the U.S.) where he plays a rather disinterested TV executive, and M.O.N.E.Y starring Wil Johnson, where he has a lovely chat with a lady who then shoots him in his car. 

IMG_4153
Groundbreaking standup

Live Theatre/Comedy
Rich has performed stand up, improv and sketch comedy as well as appearing in serious plays. He performed a sketch/stand up show at Edinburgh in 2014 with Luke Kaile (Kaile, Keeble & Kuntz), which was filmed and is currently being edited.

He was also in a play once as real life double agent Donald MacLean in A Morning with Guy Burgess at the Courtyard Theatre, London, which was featured on the BBC Review Show. He also appeared in the plays Halfway House and Criminal Audition at the Etcetera Theatre. (That last one was the play on which the eventual film was based…)

Morning with Guy Burgess

Voice work
Rich does a lot of voice work for TV & Radio adverts, video games and audio books. Big ones include the Total War: Warhammer video game and those Property Partner adverts with the people with houses for heads. To stop this site getting too unwieldy, Rich has a specialist voiceover site at richdeepvoice.co.uk

Music 2005-2010, 2016-present
Rich is now recording with Rich Keeble & The More Accomplished Musicians – please see the Music page for latest updates.

Rich used to sing and play guitar in indie-rock band Goodbye Sergeants. They actually attracted a lot of fans (in Europe and the US) thanks to Myspace (remember that?), had some proper radio play and released the single “Boy Band Kind of Way” / “I Want to Get Fired” and the Live at the Bullet Bar EP in 2007. With a change of guitarists (Rich’s schoolfriend Matt Jarman replaced Matt Haynes), the band released the An Opuscule Worthy Of A Monstrance  EP in 2009, and released a video for the song “I Used to be a Loner” which was taken from the new Three More Songs EP. However the EP never got released, and the band played their last gig in 2010.

Goodbye Sergeants 2007 (Rich in the hat)
Goodbye Sergeants 2007 (Original line up with Jon Shortt, Matt Haynes and Julian Trill. Rich in the hat)

Part of the reason for things winding down was Rich’s involvement in other musical projects. He played live keyboards for indie-rock band The Splendour on their 2008 UK summer tour in support of their album Best Way To Make Money (2008), the last performance of which was at Beachdown Festival in Brighton, which sadly no longer exists. The band went their separate ways after the tour.

The Splendour live at Beachdown Festival
The Splendour live at Beachdown Festival (Rich on keyboards, back)

In 2008 he joined the band Sergeant Buzfuz as their drummer to support their album High Slang that was released in 2009. The band played a number of gigs around the country including live session performances for BBC 6 Music – performing on both Marc Riley and Tom Robinson’s shows. He didn’t actually play on the album though. He played drums for Dr Strangely Strange during a London reunion show where Sergeant Buzfuz were supporting on 21 February 2009. Rich decided to leave the band and played his last gig with them on 21 March 2009. His replacement was Ian Button from Death in Vegas. They’re still going strong.

Sergeant Buzfuz Live on BBC Radio 6.
Sergeant Buzfuz Live on BBC Radio 6. (Rich on drums, left)

Rich also filled in on drums for trendy indie band Ratty Rat Rat for a gig at the Astoria 2 in 2008. Members of that band now play in Is Tropical who I think are doing quite well.

Rich has also played drums in The Pistol Gang & The Preacher on and off for a number of years. They called it a day in 2017. Other members were Sam Legassick on guitar/vocals (who is also in Rich Keeble Vanity Project) and Matt Jarman on bass (who was in Goodbye Sergeants).

Pistol Gang. Rich on drums.
Pistol Gang. Rich on drums.

That’s enough isn’t it.

Please visit my blog or follow me on twitter if you’re interested in finding out more about me. I am a man.

FAQs

We receive literally hundreds of questions daily, so here are some of the most frequently asked. Please see if your question is here before contacting us:

Is this Richard Keeble, the professor of journalism?
No. Afraid not.

Can I get a signed photo of Rich?
No, sorry. However, you could print out a photo from this site, and write ‘Best wishes, Rich Keeble’ on it yourself. No-one’ll know.

Is this Richard Keeble, the author, who is also a proffessor of journalism?
Sorry, no, and that’s not how you spell ‘professor’.

Will Rich be making any public appearances soon?
Technically, Rich appears in public most days.

I notice Rich’s Wikipedia entry claims he died in 1660, and his name is spelt differently. Why is this?
That’s a different person. An easy mistake to make though, so don’t beat yourself up.

Is Rich rich?
No.

Is Rich in any way related to John Keeble, the drummer from Spandau Ballet?
Actually, yes.*

*No.

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