Rhys Nicholson

Who is Rhys Nicholson?

Rhys Nicholson is an Australian comedian originally from Newcastle, New South Wales, now living in Sydney.

Nicholson won the 2012 Time Out Award for Best Newcomer at the Sydney Comedy Festival. He performed his debut solo show at the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and also toured the east coast of NSW and Queensland as part of the inaugural Breakout Comedy Tour.

He was a finalist of the Raw Comedy Award in 2009 and performed at the Sydney Comedy Festival in 2010. A regular at the Sydney Comedy Store, Nicholson is well known for his acerbic wit and big hair.

He has also been a contributor to InZine magazine. In 2008 he contributed an artwork piece which made light of depression and self-harm which highlighted his often audacious style; however, this drew public criticism.

Nicholson is openly gay and his comedy is largely focused on awkward sexual encounters, which he has described on stage as "a series of terrifying events." He has featured on two seasons of the Comedy Channel's Balls of Steel Australia in the segment "Just Come Out", in which he looks for people with whom to perform sexual acts, sometimes deliberately mistaking phrases for uses of gay slang.