Jack Rooke is an English comedian, campaigner, artist and writer from Watford. His work often explores issues surrounding grief and loss, using humour and documentary film to explore the awkwardness of death. His debut BBC Three series Happy Man was broadcast in April 2017, a documentary exploring alternative solutions to the male mental health crisis, which was nominated for Best Factual in the iTalkTelly Awards 2017 and earned Rooke a place on the BBC New Talent Hotlist 2017. He also received Broadcast magazine's TV Writing Hot Shot 2017. His debut show Good Grief which played at the Soho Theatre, earnt Rooke a nomination for Best Show by an Emerging Artist in the Total Theatre Awards 2015 and a mention in The New York Times’ Top Theatre highlights of the Edinburgh Festival 2015. BBC Comedy commissioned Good Grief for a Radio 4 adaptation, broadcast in March 2017. His second show Happy Hour was commissioned by Soho Theatre and premiered at the Edinburgh Festival 2017 to critical acclaim and a nomination for The Scotsman's first ever Mental Health Arts award.
Career
Rooke became a performer after meeting Bestival founder and BBC 6 Music DJ Rob Da Bank at a BBC Blast workshop in 2009. After graduating from a Journalism BA, Rooke began making a documentary about the experience of losing his father. This project involved interviews with Rooke's family, exploring the hurdles of being a bereaved teenager from a working-class background in Britain. The documentary initially ran out of funding, until Arts Council England decided to fund Rooke to create a live comedy-storytelling show which featured excerpts of documentary footage and interviews with his 85-year-old grandmother Sicely. The show Good Grief, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015 with venue partner Underbelly and directed by Gabriel Bisset-Smith. It was met with critical acclaim, selling out numerous dates and leading to three runs at London's Soho Theatre. The show also protested against government proposals to cut Widowed Parents Allowance, a basic weekly welfare payment for bereaved families in Britain. In collaboration with the , the show aimed to raise awareness of these cuts. Good Grief headlined Soho Theatre's first ever #SohoRising season, aiming to showcase the best ‘emerging companies, young people and brave new writing.' He is frequently consulted on matters of bereavement by BBC Radio 1, frequently appearing on their social action programme The Surgery. In 2014 he featured in the documentary 'Radio 1's Guide To Happiness' with hosts Dan and Phil and in Radio 1's 'Running With Grief' documentary with Clara Amfo in April 2016.
Other
Rooke features in the music video for Santigold's single 'Can't Get Enough Of Myself' alongside Jay-Z, Pharrell Wiliams, Andy Samberg, Olivia Wilde and Alexander Wang. He is an ambassador for male suicide prevention charity CALM and deputy edited their free lifestyle publication The CALMzine from 2013–2015. He picked up the 2016 Mind Media award for Best Publication. As a journalist and blogger, Rooke has created work and written for The Guardian, Channel 4, The Independent, The Huffington Post, BBC London 94.9, Cosmopolitan, Roundhouse Radio and Beige Magazine.
