Hot Shots 2024: Nathan Foad

Nathan Foad is best known to viewers as Lucius Spriggs, the scribe with a sideline in art aboard the pirate ship in HBO’s Our Flag Means Death, shown in the UK on BBC2. The East Midlands-born writer and actor was one of the freshest faces in the cast, having been picked for the role by Taika Waititi after his tweets caught the eye of the director. He became something of a scene-stealer and his starmaking turn is one of the best examples of the show’s progressive attitude to gay relationships.

Foad made his name when he put his home town on the map with his semi-autobiographical sitcom Newark, Newark, acting alongside Morgana Robinson and Mathew Horne in the three-part series, which debuted on Gold in 2022 and has subsequently aired on BBC2.

He has also written episodes of Vico Films’ The Young Offenders and Roughcut’s recent BBC3 sitcom Things I Should Have Done, as well as penning some of Tom Allen’s barbed quips on Love Productions’ The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice for Channel 4.

Acting-wise, he has popped up in Roughcut’s Sky comedy Bloods and, proving his versatility, voiced a toilet in Blink Industries’ surreal C4 animated comedy Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared. 

Another feather in Foad’s cap was his Royal Shakespeare Company debut in April, bringing his comic chops to the role of Costard in Emily Burns’ production of Love’s Labour’s Lost.

“There are plenty of reasons why I shouldn’t have succeeded in this industry,” he refl ects. “I am a working-class, state-educated queer person from a small East Midlands market town. My mum worked in a chip shop and my dad in a call centre. A career in the arts seemed nigh-on impossible for someone from my background, but I have spent the past decade working myself silly and banging down doors. I am proud of that.”

On Newark, Newark, Nathan impressed Balloon head of development Dave Evans with his collaborative work ethic, humble demeanour and “dedication to delivering the best possible drafts”.

Evans says: “Watching him with director Amanda Blue was a joy. He was on set for almost every take and always engaged sensitively and thoughtfully – theirs was a rare, genuine creative dialogue.”

Foad teamed up again with Balloon last year to develop Triplets Baby, a proof-of-concept short that was “fi lthy and insane”, says Evans, who declares: “Nathan’s already one of my favourite writers, line for line, in any medium.”

As for what makes Nathan’s writing stand out, Evans says: “He has a pure love of, and talent for, writing and delivering actual jokes. That sounds like a pre-requisite for a comedy writer and performer, but so much currently in the genre has only an atmosphere of warmth or kookiness with no meat on the bone.

“Nathan’s work is substantial and hilarious, his voice running the gamut from sweet to dirty, silly to wicked and all across impeccably plotted story. He’s the real deal.”