Henry Rowley: The British ‘posh boy’ who became one of the year’s breakout TikTok stars
Henry Rowley couldn’t be more honest about enjoying the recognition that comes with going viral.
“I really do love it,” he says. “Partly because I’m a vain ****!”
The 25-year-old was a standout performer at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, a prospect which not long ago would probably have made him laugh more than one of his own jokes.
No longer a mere marketing executive after finding fame on TikTok, the comic’s growing collection of skits and impressions – each personifying parts of pop culture and society we can all relate to or poke fun at – have seen him amass more than 1.3 million followers.
“It was pretty cool,” he says of the first video that really took off.
“Each time you hit a milestone of numbers it’s so surreal, the fact so many people have seen your video.
“But I think also I was keeping in mind that a lot of people probably don’t find it funny or even find it annoying, it’s just the nature of comedy, especially online.”
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Fringe comics tell favourite jokes
Growing up ‘posh’
Since he shared his first video last year, Rowley has developed a cast of his own characters to go along with the countless celebrity impressions and film parodies.
There’s Minty and Hugo, “the music guy at afters” and “the walking ick”, the husky-voiced posh girl Delicatessen.
None of his clips are more popular than those sometimes self-deprecating riffs on Britain’s upper class, speaking in tones that would embarrass even Jack Whitehall and Boris Johnson.
And at this most wonderful time of year, when Love Actually is as inescapable as mince pies and turkey, he’s certainly not letting his Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley impressions go to waste.
“I’d grown up in Leicester being the posh one of my friends, and always sort of taken the p*** out of it,” he says.
“Then suddenly I was in Bristol University surrounded by these posh kids and the minute they heard I was from Leicester they saw me as this little street urchin. I’m really not! So a lot of it is based on friends I made there, and sometimes even myself.”
Rowley doesn’t take any negative feedback to heart – any comedian who does probably isn’t long for the circuit, although putting all your material online certainly makes you an easy target.
Those who aren’t keen “normally just hate me from afar”, he says. “Which I’m OK with!”
Love Actually’s Hugh Grant is a regular source of inspiration. Pic: Peter Mountain/Universal/Dna/Working Title/Kobal/Shutterstock
A simple formula
With his videos attracting 69.1 million likes on TikTok, earning him fans all around the world, it’s safe to say he has mostly found himself an enthusiastic audience.
While few are safe to embed in a family-friendly news article, each clip strives to be relatable in some way.
As someone who had the misfortune of enduring the entire Twilight saga this year, his recreation of what it’s like to watch them is painfully accurate.
The unremarkable selfie-style framing and sharp runtimes also suit the platform perfectly.
When Rowley’s fans see him out and about, he can’t help but enjoy hearing about how much they enjoy his work.
“It’s such a nice interaction meeting someone, finding out they find you funny or enjoy what you’re doing,” he says.
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But there’s no real formula to his success, he insists.
Well, no formula beyond doing something he loves – and he’s now making a living out of it.
“If you don’t enjoy making the videos or don’t like the end product, what’s the point in doing it?” he says.
“People always say to me, ‘why do you always laugh at your own jokes?’ And I say ‘because I find them hilarious. If I didn’t then I wouldn’t say them.'”
Well, that and he’s a vain so-and-so.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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