The last few years have been extremely busy for Paul on both sides of the Atlantic since his America’s Got Talent win. He had a headline residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip for 6 months in 2016. In 2017 and 2018 he appeared on spin-off shows ‘America’s Got Talent - The Champions’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent - The Champions’. Since then, Paul has toured the US and UK with his critically acclaimed shows ‘All Mouth’, ‘Puppet Party’ and ‘Hands Free’. The latter has Paul Zerdin – Hands Free is now his latest TV Comedy Special and is now showing exclusively on the Paul Zerdin YouTube Channel. Last year he starred in the West End’s biggest and best pantomime at the London Palladium – Jack & The Beanstalk which was his 28th panto season! This year he returns once more to the Palladium starring alongside Jennifer Saunders, Julian Clary, Nigel Havers and Gary Wilmot in Peter Pan.
Zerdin is arguably the UK’s number one ventriloquist and made his TV debut in 1993 as the host of GMTV’s ‘Rise and Shine’. He then went on to win ITV’s The Big Big Talent Show, hosted by Jonathan Ross. Since then, he has appeared on countless TV shows including The World Stands Up (Comedy Central), The Stand-Up Show BBC1, Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival, Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford (ITV1), Tonight at The London Palladium with Bruce Forsyth and Bradley Walsh (ITV1), Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show (BBC1) and three appearances at The Royal Variety Performance. Winning Series 10 of America’s Got Talent in September 2015, Zerdin and his sidekicks soon went viral on YouTube, receiving millions of views from around the world.
Despite being worried due to lack of work, lockdown proved to be one of the most creative periods in his life during which he wrote his last tour show, his latest comedy special and created his own TV show for YouTube called ‘Sponge Weekly’!
During this time, he also became single for the first time in years, which he found a big shock - no job, no partner, and the future of live entertainment at that point looked very, very uncertain. However, he got through it with the help of his close friends including Nigel Havers and his lovely wife with nightly Zooms. He joined dating apps, from which he has multiple stories.
He loves travel and has been lucky enough to work all over the world; he even once went on a 30-hour trip to Argentina for a single 15-minute performance, making time for a steak before he came home! Paul is totally obsessed with his job and even works on new ideas and jokes when he is on holiday!
His hobbies include mono skiing and scuba diving! Paul is a Gold Star Member of The Inner Magic Circle and lives with his sponge family and fiancé, Emma, in Surrey.
The pair got together after reconnecting on Facebook after the second lockdown and go engaged this May in Vegas! At the time she was living abroad, however she came to see him in the UK where they spent quarantine together and then she never left…! They had previously met 16 years ago when they both appeared in a show together.