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About

Ryan Cullen

Ryan Cullen is an Irish stand-up comedian and comedy writer from Lifford, County Donegal, now based in Scotland, known for pitch-black one-liners and for roast battle.

He started at an open mic in a Dublin pub, won the Capital Comedy Club Competition in 2013, and in 2016 was runner-up in the first Irish Comedian of the Year. That August he made his Edinburgh Fringe debut with Safe Word, and he has brought a new hour to Edinburgh most years since: Guantanamo Bae, Razor, Caveat Emptor*, Cullen in the Name Of! and, in 2026, Cullen Me Softly at Monkey Barrel.

His set at the Vodafone Comedy Carnival in Galway was broadcast on RTÉ2's Laughter in the Eyre, he has appeared on BBC Scotland's The Comedy Underground, and he was one of the faces of the comedy YouTube channel Facts. His full special, Caveat Emptor, filmed at The Stand in Edinburgh, is on the Roast Battle channel. In roast battle he has fought from Scotland to Barcelona and The Comedy Store in Los Angeles.

As a writer he has worked on RTÉ's Republic of Telly and Callan's Kicks and on BBC Northern Ireland's Late Licence. Off stage he co-hosts Absolute Cuts, a weekly film podcast, with the comedian Mark Nelson.

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