Graham Norton (b.1963, Dublin), Broadcaster, Comedian, Actor and Writer

Gareth Reid , Northern Irish, b.1974

Title

Date2017

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

137 × 107 cm

Signedlower left: GR

Credit LineWinner’s commission from “Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year 2017”. Presented, Storyvault Films, 2017

Object numberNGI.2017.7

DescriptionBrought up in Bandon, Co. Cork, Graham Norton (born Graham Walker) moved to London in his early twenties, where he attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. Having begun his career as a stand-up comedian, he gravitated towards radio and television work, featuring regularly on panel shows, quiz shows and comedies. A winner of five BAFTA TV awards, he is best known as a host of UK chat-shows on Channel 5, Channel 4 (So Graham Norton; V Graham Norton) and, since 2007, the BBC (The Graham Norton Show), but has presented many other prime-time entertainment programmes. In 2009, he took over from Terry Wogan as a host of the BBC coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest since, and currently presents a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2. He has also performed in movies and in the West End. In 2016, 'Holding', Norton's debut novel, won the Popular Fiction Book of the Year in the Bord Gais Irish Book Awards.
ProvenancePresented to the National Portrait Collection by Storyvault Films/Sky Arts (who commissioned the portrait, in consultation with the NGI, as part of the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2017 competition), 2017Exhibition HistoryPortrait Artist of the Year, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, 19 February - 5 June 2022