Supriya Kumar "Paul" Sinha is a English comedian, broadcaster and quiz player. He is one of the professional quizzers on the ITV game show The Chase.
Early life
Sinha was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, to Indian parents of Bengali Hindu origin. He was educated at Dulwich College and St George's Hospital Medical School. Sinha is a former general practitioner, qualifying in 1995. While at medical school he developed a taste for the stage in St George's annual revue and refined his comedy as co-editor of the medical school newsletter, popularly known as the Slag Mag.
Career
Stand-up comedy
Sinha began performing stand-up while working as a junior doctor in hospitals in London and King's Lynn. His early material drew on his sexuality and ethnicity, with heavy use of puns. He promoted himself as "the world's only gay Anglo-Bengali GP turned stand up comedian". In 1999, he came third in the final of the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year. After several years of combining touring with his nascent medical career, Sinha's breakthrough came with his second solo Edinburgh show, Saint or Sinha?, which earned him an if.comeddie nomination in 2006. In 2013 Sinha performed in Comedy Central's The Alternative Comedy Experience, and in 2019 he was a contestant on the 8th series of comedy game show Taskmaster.
Sinha has performed many times on BBC Radio 4, on shows including The News Quiz, The Now Show, Loose Ends, 28 Acts in 28 Minutes, Shappi Talk and Just a Minute. His interest in football and cricket has led to appearances on Radio 5 Live, most notably on Fighting Talk where he has won the Champion of Champions finale twice. He has also appeared on Talksport radio station. He has appeared as a guest on Midweek, Woman's Hour, Broadcasting House and as a political pundit on PM. In March 2011, Sinha presented his own Radio 4 programme, Paul Sinha's Quiz Culture, in which he explored the world of competitive quizzing. His second documentary, The Sinha Test, aired on 14 July 2011 and examined patriotism and sporting allegiance. In July 2012, he presented a programme called The Sinha Games on BBC Radio 4 about the Olympic Games and his experience as a Londoner. In August 2013, Sinha wrote and performed a four part series Paul Sinha's Citizenship Test. This was aired initially on BBC Radio 4 Extra and then on BBC Radio 4 in September 2013. In December 2014, Sinha created Paul Sinha's History Revision. on Radio 4. A second series followed in May 2016, winning the Rose d'Or for Radio Comedy, and also a third series in 2017. In August 2019, Sinha launched a four part series Paul Sinha's General Knowledge.
Quizzing
After an appearance on The Weakest Link, Sinha made appearances on , Are You an Egghead?, Mastermind and Brain of Britain. Sinha took 11th place in the 2018 World Quizzing Championships and became the British Quizzing Champion in September 2019. Sinha also plays in the Quiz League of London for the Gray Monks.
''The Chase''
In 2011, Sinha joined the ITV quiz series The Chase as the fourth "chaser", with the nicknames "The Sinnerman", "The Smiling Assassin" and "Sarcasm in a Suit". His first episode was broadcast in the fourth series on 8 September 2011. In an episode aired on 6 May 2016, he appeared to have gone through the whole show without getting a question wrong. However, there was a head-to-head question which both the player and the chaser answered wrongly, but was edited out due to time constraints. He also appears in celebrity and family editions of the show. He has said he is more known overseas than in Britain, where The Chase is screened at 5:00 pm before many people are home from work.
Personal life
Although he has often discussed his sexuality in his comedy shows, many viewers of The Chase were unaware that Sinha is gay until May 2017, when he made a passing comment on the show about a male ex of his being an avid Mario Kart fan. In June 2019, Sinha announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In December 2019, Sinha married his long-term partner, Oliver Levy, at Mayfair Library in London.
