actor comedian producer writer
Sweet was born in Nottingham in 1985 and attended Nottingham High School, an independent school founded in the fifteenth century and one of England's longstanding educational institutions. His father was a solicitor and his mother was a teacher, while Sweet was initially expected to enter the legal profession.
He later developed his career in comedy through university performance and writing. Sweet is a supporter of Nottingham Forest Football Club.
Sweet attended Nottingham High School before studying English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a first-class degree. Pembroke, founded in 1347, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge and combines undergraduate teaching with a long tradition of scholarship and literary culture.
At Cambridge, Sweet became involved with the Footlights, the university's student comedy society, and worked with Joe Thomas and Simon Bird. He served as Footlights vice-president during his student years, while Thomas was secretary and Bird was also active in the group.
After graduating from Cambridge, Sweet joined Endemol UK as an intern rather than entering the legal profession. Endemol UK was a major television production company whose work included entertainment, factual programming, and scripted formats for British broadcasters.
Sweet's early performance work developed through the Cambridge comedy network and Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows. In 2009, he won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer for Mostly About Arthur, a character-comedy show centered on a fictional brother. The award established him as a distinctive performer and writer of character-based comedy.
Sweet worked with Joe Thomas and Simon Bird on stage and television projects. Their collaborations included The Meeting and the First World War sitcom Chickens, in which Sweet co-wrote and acted alongside Thomas and Bird. Chickens presented three conscientious objectors living in a British village during the war and was produced for television by Big Talk Productions before being broadcast on Sky.
He wrote and starred in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Hard to Tell, which ran for two series and followed a romance in which the central couple never hear each other speak. Sweet subsequently created and starred in the BBC Three comedy series Together, and he played Tom Oliver in the Channel 4 police comedy-drama Babylon.
Sweet has also appeared in television productions including When Boris Met Dave, The Inbetweeners, Him & Her, Plebs, Loaded, and I Hate You. In I Hate You, he played Bob Oxygen, an eccentric autograph dealer. He wrote the screenplay for the feature film Wicked Little Letters and has continued to combine acting, writing, performance, and production.
In 2009, Sweet won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer for Mostly About Arthur, a character-comedy show built around the fictional life of Arthur.
Sweet co-wrote and acted in Chickens with Joe Thomas and Simon Bird, bringing a comedy about three First World War conscientious objectors to television.
Sweet wrote and starred in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Hard to Tell, which ran for two series and used the unusual premise that its central couple never hear each other speak.
Sweet wrote the screenplay for the feature film Wicked Little Letters, extending his work from live and broadcast comedy into cinema.
Sweet was a member of the Cambridge Footlights while studying at Pembroke College and served as the society's vice-president. The Footlights is a student comedy organization with a long history of producing British comedians, writers, and performers through revues and live comedy.
Quotes from others about the person
The Edinburgh Comedy Awards described Mostly About Arthur as an unexpected and highly original character-comedy show.
Sweet formed a continuing creative partnership with Joe Thomas and Simon Bird through the Cambridge Footlights. The three later shared a flat after graduating and collaborated on stage and television comedy, including Chickens.
Sweet and Bird were active together in the Cambridge Footlights, shared a flat after graduation, and collaborated on Chickens and other comedy projects.
Sweet met Thomas at Pembroke College, Cambridge; they performed together in the Footlights and collaborated on The Meeting and Chickens.
