Howard Read is a multi-award-winning writer, head writer, stand-up, animator and lyricist. In the last year he’s head-written, written for and developed shows for CBBC, CBeebies, Milkshake, France Télévision and RTE. His work has won and been nominated for some of the biggest awards in both television and live comedy.
Download his TV Writing CV Here.
Howard started out as a stand-up and still performs for club and family audiences, when his writing work doesn’t keep him at his desk. His stand-up has taken him all over the world, got him on TV and radio and his comic songs made him runner-up of the inaugural Musical Comedy Awards .
Perhaps his dyslexia took him towards making comedy with pictures as well as just words. Shortly after he turned professional Howard taught himself to animate winning the BBC New Comedy Award for his short Polar Bears In A Snowstorm . He wrote a series of comedy animations called Bird On A Wire which was purchased by The Paramount Comedy Channel. He also created, co-wrote, voiced and animated a series of shorts called Two Posh Old Men which was picked up by UKTV and ended up as a 30-strong series on what was to become the Dave comedy channel.
Now juggling both a stand-up and an animation career Howard tried to combine the two when it came to taking his first hour-long comedy show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The resultant show Words & Pictures received rave 4 and 5 star reviews and saw the appearance of Howard’s six-year-old animated alter-ego Little Howard. His next Fringe outing The Big Howard Little Howard Show was a double-act with the imaginary child and was the only UK nominee for The Edinburgh Comedy Award (then The Perrier) . This show took Howard(s) to New York, The Aspen Comedy Festival and The Melbourne International Comedy Festival and attracted interest from TV and radio.
Howard created and co-wrote (with Chris Chantler) a show called Peacefully In Their Sleeps for Radio 4, had a development deal with Tiger Aspect Animation, co-wrote and animated a pilot animation for CBBC called Stairlift To Heaven, appeared on The Royal Variety Performance and finally (when he adapted his live show to be family friendly) got his own series on CBBC Little Howard’s Big Question which ran for three series an won a Writer’s Guild Award For Best Children’s Script.
Soon, alongside touring his Big Howard Little Howard shows, Howard was writing for Kid’s TV including The Amazing World Of Gumball, The Furchester Hotel, Dennis And Gnasher Unleashed and was part of the core team who re-launched Danger Mouse for a new generation. He has also been part of the core team of Lion TV and CBBC’s Horrible Histories. While he’s been writing for the show it’s won several BAFTAs, EMMY’S, a Rose D’Or and in 2024 it was awarded a Special BAFTA for it’s 15 years of entertaining, inspiring and educating. Howard is now part of the core writing team on Horrible Science.
Covid Lockdown saw a shift away from live work, and since, his writing career has taken off. Howard was asked to develop and write the first long-form outing for Ubisoft’s The Rabbids. The 70 minutes Special Rabbids Invasion: Mission To Mars aired on France Télévision and Netflix and was nominated for an International EMMY award. Howard was also asked to write an animated film to explain King Charles III’s coronation to children which was shown in schools across the UK and Commonwealth, and in park celebrations nationally.
In the last year Howard head-wrote Stan & Gran for Tiger Aspect Kids & Family which should air on Milkshake and Nick UK in late 2025. He also wrote for Tim Rex In Space (Nickelodeon International), Adam Loves Adventure (RTE), the upcoming re-launch of Balamory, Duck & Frog (CBBC) and the first series of Horrible Science which has received rave reviews. He’s helped develop shows for Kavaleer in Dublin, Submarine in the Netherlands and King Banana TV in the UK.
For full details of the shows Howard has contributed to have a look at the My Work section of the websites or download his writing CV here.
