Paul Richards is a drummer/drum teacher, comedy writer/performer (for theatre), playwright, novelist and internationally award-winning actor (although he denies he’s ‘proper’ actor) based in Cambridge. 43, lanky, can’t grow a beard. Likes to talk about himself in the third person.

As a drummer, recordings he has drummed all over have been broadcast on Channel 4, BBC Radio 5, BBC 6 Music – all the usual places you’d expect to find a professional groovester. He is constantly on tour with lovely musician chums in award-winning bands and is continually in demand by various artists for a range of versatile projects. He has toured the UK, a lot, and China. These days, you’ll mostly find him hitting things for folk/pop act Fred’s House, and The Queen Bee Blues Band. His acclaimed drum workshops and private lessons have seen him teach a whole range of students from all walks of life in various settings - check out his teaching page for more info. Paul is the founding member of Drummers to the Rescue - a project which puts his drum students onstage raising money for charity - the world can be a pretty harsh place right now, but drumming makes everything better. For those wishing to have a team building day with a difference, Paul also runs his Drumming Sports Day sessions, which have been very fun, if chaotic, so far. He also aims to offer free drum lessons to NHS staff/kids who’s parents work for the NHS because, you know, you guys save lives and everything. More details of the NHS pot here.

As a writer/performer he has taken countless (well, 34) shows to the Edinburgh Fringe, tours the UK frequently going through quite a lot of cars and has had some quite nice reviews in the process. He talks very fast, usually about his love of Ginsters slices and often tries to justify it all as theatre. His 2018 play, Short Plays for Marvellous People, won him his first award, with his 2019 (but still touring, forever so it seems…) show, Harvey Greenfield is Running Late picking up national acclaim. The feature film version finally went into production in 2021, with Paul once again taking the title role alongside Mr Motivator, Liz Barker (Blue Peter), Norman Lovet (Red Dwarf) and many others. It premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival in November 2023, where it also won three awards - including best feature film and Paul won the award for ‘Best Male Actor in a Feature Film’. He’s still denying he’s an actor, though. The follow-up play ran at the 2022 fringe (alongside Paul’s three other shows…) to brilliant press, with his drumming comedy show, My Function Band Hell, nominated at the prestigious Leicester Comedy Festival for ‘best musical show’ in 2023. Paul’s latest one-man play, Is This the End of Edward J. Payne opened in New York for four gloriously sweaty in nights in June 2023. Paul is the founding member of IBiC Productions.

Paul’s radio sitcom, Technically Single, is currently being developed by the BBC Radio and Theatre Group, with recording taking place at the iconic Broadcasting House. A 9-episode radio sitcom he wrote, and co-produced, Three Men and a Bassist, is currently available as a series on Spotify/Apple Podcasts.

As a playwright, Paul has written lots of plays, with his work performed all over the world. He’s had a couple plays published in Canada, and quite a few back here in England. His collection of short stories, The Stationery Seller, has been a bit of a success.

His spoof documentary movie, 50 Ways to Leave Your Drummer, a fun if bizarre project in which he spent 18 months trying to get sacked by fifty different bands (those to have fired him include Jethro Tull, Heaven 17 and Frank Turner) premiered in 2015. It was a bit of fun which went too far, but a great adventure, all the same.

This website is partly here to put all of Paul’s work into one place (because at one point he had six different websites and it was a nightmare to maintain), but also so Paul can have his full schedule somewhere online just in case he accidentally deletes his diary off his phone again.

Contact: thepaulrichards@gmail.com