Introduction
Supriya Kumar "Paul" Sinha (born 28 May 1970) is a British comedian, broadcaster, and quiz player of Bengali descent. He is one of the chasers on the ITV game show The Chase.
Early life
Sinha was educated at Dulwich College and St George's Hospital Medical School. Sinha is a former general practitioner, qualifying in the 1990s. 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 is 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.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows
- 2004, Aspects of Love, Actually
- 2006, Saint or Sinha? (if.comeddie award nomination)
- 2007, King of the World
- 2009, 39 Years of Solitude
- 2010, Extreme Anti-White Vitriol
- 2011, Looking at the Stars
- 2015, Postcards from the Z List
- 2017, Shout Out To My Ex
- 2018, The Two Ages of Man
Radio
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 (he is a Liverpool F.C. fan,) 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 December 2014, Sinha wrote and performed his first series on Radio 4, Paul Sinha's History Revision. A second series followed in May 2016, winning the Rose d'Or for Radio Comedy.
Quizzing
After an appearance on The Weakest Link (where he was voted off 4th), Sinha made appearances on University Challenge: The Professionals (lost), Are You an Egghead? (lost in first round), Mastermind (4th) and Brain of Britain (3rd). Sinha is currently ranked 7th in the National Quiz Rankings (as of 30 May 2017), and placed 11th in the 2018 World Quizzing Championships. He 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 wrong, 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 (such as in New Zealand) than in Britain, where The Chase is screened at 5:00 pm before many people are home from work.
Personal life
In May 2017, Sinha revealed on The Chase that he is gay, though he has often discussed his sexuality in his comedy shows.
In June 2019, Sinha announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.