Adam Richard Kay is a British comedy writer, author, comedian and former doctor. His television writing credits include Crims, Mrs. Brown's Boys and Mitchell and Webb. He is best known as author of the number one bestselling bookThis Is Going to Hurt.
Early life
Kay grew up in a Jewish household and with his father being a doctor, he describes becoming a doctor as being a default decision. He attended Dulwich College, an all-boys public school, before reading medicine at Imperial.
Career
Medicine
Kay trained as a doctor, where he started performing in medical school shows in 1998. While at medical school, he founded the musical comedy group Amateur Transplants and wrote for BBC Radio 4. Kay worked for a number of years as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, writing textbooks on the subject, before leaving medicine for a career in writing.
Music
Kay founded the Amateur Transplants. Their song "London Underground", which was set to the tune of "Going Underground" by The Jam, gained significant popularity on the internet in the UK in 2005.
Writing
Kay's first book, This is Going to Hurt, based on diaries from his former career as a doctor, was published by Picador in September 2017 and became an instant Sunday Times bestseller. The paperback edition was also an instant Sunday Times number one bestseller, a position it held for well over a year and selling over one million copies. It was the book of the year in the UK's 2018 National Book Awards. The book was very well received by critics, including in the literary pages of The Times, Financial Times, Guardian, The Scotsman and The Daily Express. In addition to book of the year, it also won at the National Book Awards in the categories of Non-Fiction Book of the Year, New Writer of the Year and Book Club Book of the Year. It was also awarded Blackwell's Debut Book of the Year 2017, Sunday Times Humour Book of the Year, and won both non-fiction book of the year and the overall prize in the 2017 Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards. It was nominated for Non-Fiction book of the year in the 2018 British Book Awards, won Esquire Book of the Year and was a selection of the Zoe Ball Book Club. It has been translated into 28 languages, achieving number one status internationally. It was the UK's second-best selling book of 2018. Kay's second book, Twas the Nightshift before Christmas, was released in October 2019. On 6 July 2018, the BBC announced that Kay would be adapting This Is Going to Hurt as an eight-part comedy-drama for BBC Two. It will be made by Sister Pictures and Kay will also be a co-executive producer. Each episode will be 45 minutes long. Kay is an established screenwriter, having written and co-created 2015 BBC Three sitcom series Crims - along with Grandma's House writer Dan Swimer. His other television work as a writer and script editor includes Mrs. Brown's Boys, Mongrels, Watson & Oliver, Up the Women, Very British Problems, Flat TV, Our Ex Wife, Who is America?, Mitchell and Webb and Child Genius. In April 2020, it was announced Trapeze would publish a collection of personal stories about the NHS edited by Kay. Entitled "Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You", the book will include letters from stars including Sir Paul McCartney, Louis Theroux, Caitlin Moran and Jameela Jamil.
Kay is gay, and was voted in Pink News' top 50 most influential LGBT Twitter users. Kay attended Dulwich College before continuing his education at Imperial College School of Medicine. He lives in Chiswick, London, with his husband, Game of Thrones executive James Farrell.
