A former St Andrews University student is in the running for the most coveted comedy prize at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Li Jin Hao, who first performed at the festival while he was a student, is one of six contenders for the Edinburgh Comedy Awards honour.
Previous winners include Stephen Fry, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans, Al Murray, Sarah Millican, Omid Djalili, Eddie Izzard, Tim Minchin, Jenny Eclair and Frank Skinner.
More than 500 shows were watched by the judging panel and scouts for the awards over the last few weeks.
Jin Hao will be up against Mexican-American performer Lara Ricote and four English stand-ups: Harriet Dyer, Chris Cantrill, Dan Tiernan and Spencer Jones.
His new Fringe show, Falling From a Moon, is said to have been inspired by the break-up of his first relationship, exploring “when childhood wonder ended and the magnitude of adulthood began.”
Born in China and raised in Singapore, Jin Hao initially pursued a career as an actor in Singapore, where he appeared in several films and was nominated for best actor in the National Youth Film Awards.
Jin Hao, who studied English and film, was in a comedy revue group at St Andrews which took a show to the Fringe. He appeared in the Pleasance Comedy Reserve showcase in 2023, the year before he launched his debut solo show at the Fringe.
Swimming in a Submarine, which saw him draw on his experiences of mandatory conscription in the Singaporean army, saw him nominated for best newcomer in the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
Jin Hao has previously been a finalist in the Sean Lock Comedy Awards, the Chortle Student Comedy Awards and the BBC New Comedy Awards.
He has a starring role in American film director Judd Apatow’s new comedy The Comeback King, which is due to be released next year and also stars Glen Powell, Cristin Milioti, Madelyn Cline and Stavros Halkias.
Of the main award nominees this year, Ricote is nominated for a second time, Jones and Tiernan have notched up their third nominations, and Cantrill has been recognised for a fourth time.
Contenders for the best newcomer prize in the awards are Dom McGovern, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Freddie Meredith, Marty Gleeson, Omar Badawy, Tom Towelling and the Underground Monk Show.
Edinburgh Comedy Awards director Nica Burns and executive director Emma Brünjes said: “Our 2026 nominees have all created brilliantly funny, well written and performed shows.
“The Fringe is a place for experimentation and discovery and the nominees of best comedy show and best newcomer are all outstanding examples.
