British series:
Series: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen
Specials: New Year Treat | New Year Treat II | New Year Treat III | New Year Treat IV
New Zealand series:
Seasons: One | Two | Three | Four
Australian Series:
Seasons: One
Angella Dravid
"Do I really make tasks feel uncomfortable? It feels normal."
Jeremy: How are your nipples?
Paul: They've recovered.
Angella: I kissed them better.
Jeremy: I'm starting to get concerned about the story arc that's starting to develop between you two.
A comedian, writer and actress. She is known for her stand-up comedy show Down the Rabbit Hole, and in 2017 won the Billy T Award for up-and-coming New Zealand comedians. She has also had roles in Three comedy series Funny Girls and Jono and Ben.
- Beat: After Jeremy congratulates her for not making a recorded task uncomfortable, Angella does not respond for a very, very long moment, succeeding in making the studio uncomfortable.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: As softly spoken and as quiet as her voice is, Angella as some of the most brutal insults in the Season 1 cast.
- Jeremy: Brynley’s giving up her boyfriend!Angella: I think he gave up first.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Angella does this to Jeremy twice in this series during the prize task rounds.
- In "An Intervention," the prize task is to bring in the worst thing to show the Taskmaster. Angella brings in a book filled with mean comments about how this show will not live up to the original and how Jeremy is a poor man's substitute for Greg Davies. This works to Angella's benefit and was given the full 5 points.
- In "Astro Blaster," the prize task is to bring in something that hasn't aged well — Angella brings in a floppy disk that contains a photo of an outdated hairstyle (an Embarrassing Old Photo of Jeremy with frosted tips from his Newsboy era) and claims that she would have brought in a current photo but she thought it would be too harsh. The second time, however, she was penalised and only received 2 points.
- The Cameo: Angella returns in the Season 2 finale in one of the prerecorded tasks dressed in a chipmunk costume, as revealed during David's video clip.
- Deadpan Snarker: She usually comes in for the kill very softly.Leigh: If I'm giving up my electric guitar and you're give up a thing of floss — non-branded...
Jeremy: Brynley's giving up her boyfriend!
Angella: I think he gave up first.
Brynley: [Face Palm] - Establishing Character Moment: From the get-go, Angella demonstrates her discomfort, her nervous energy, and soft-spoken, wide-eyed delivery through the reveal of her very first prize entry - her anti-anxiety medication (under the category "best thing you can't live without"):Jeremy: [after the initial applause dies down] Quite a lot of anti-anxiety medication, by the looks of it.
Angella: Yeah, I, uh, forgot to take them today. [audience laughs]
Paul: I really hope for the sake of the show that you win today.
Angella: [Beat] Same. - Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The Tiny Girl to Leigh's Big Guy whenever they are partnered up for team tasks. Especially since she's the shortest panelist for series 1.
- Prone to Tears: Angella looks perpetually as if she's on the verge of breaking into tears.
Brynley Stent
"Oh, nutsack!"
A New-Zealand comedian, actor and writer. She is best known for her stand-up comedy shows, and in 2021 was the winner of the Billy T Award for up-and-coming New Zealand comedians. She has also appeared on Three satirical news show Jono and Ben.- Dodgy Toupee: She had to wear one for the studio segments of two episodes (as they're shot in blocks) because she needed to hide her real hair under a bald cap for an in-studio outlandish costume task.
- Genre Savvy: Brynley is clearly a fan of the original (her outfit contains many a Shout-Out to memorable moments from the UK series) and has applied her knowledge and enthusiasm into completing her tasks, such as when she determines the scoring rules for the "Score 10 points" tasks.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Her task submission for the "Thing The Taskmaster Doesn't Want To See" prize task in episode 7 is a video of Greg Davies, the Taskmaster, berating Jeremy for giving the contestants too much freedom and leeway and demanding that he treats them with an iron hand. Unfortunately for Brynley, Jeremy takes Greg at his word... and gives her one point.Brynley: When I saw the video I thought that would happen.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Brynley's default attire when she performs her pre-recorded tasks is a mash-up of Girl Guide and US Marine outfits, complete with sash and badges. However, everybody in the studio thinks that it makes her look like the Hitler Youth and make the occasional comparison, much to Brynley's dismay.Guy: [Madeleine]'s dressed like Jane Bond, [Brynley]'s dressed like a Nazi. We're, like, ready to go.
Madeleine: [Brynley]'s dressed like an evil person!
Brynley: [upset] I'm a Girl Scout, not a Nazi! - Nightmare Fetishist: During a task to fill a pinata with something surprising, her idea is to fill it with meat and fake blood. She earns two points as Paul, who knows her personally, suspected she would take such a route and as such wasn't particularly surprised.
Guy Williams
"Kia kaha! Five points!"
A New Zealand comedian and television personality. He is also known for co-hosting Three satirical news programme Jono and Ben, narrating Come Dine with Me New Zealand and hosting faux news programme New Zealand Today. He is also the older brother of Paul Williams, The Taskmasters Assistant.- Big Brother Bully: Guy and Paul are brothers, and Guy occasionally makes his younger sibling do demeaning things during tasks.Guy Williams: You're gonna want to switch the cameras off, because as soon as I get to him with this fucking frisbee, I'm going to assault him.
- Broke the Rating Scale: Jeremy deemed Guy's piñata task attempt to be actually damaging to men's mental health awareness and made him the second contestant in all of Taskmaster, after Magnus Devold of Kongen Befaler Series 2, to be given a negative score through judgement rather than penaltiesnote .
- Butt-Monkey: In grand Taskmaster tradition, Guy gets singled out to take a proper maths exam and gets every question wrong.
- Did Not Think This Through: In "My Uncle John", Guy Williams launches into what he claims is a genuine family story, somehow forgetting that the Taskmaster's Assistant is his own brother who proceeds to call him out on the lie.
- Failed a Spot Check: When tasked with phoning someone he went to primary school with, he somehow fails to realize that he's sitting right across from Paul, his own brother, who he went to primary school with.
- The Gadfly: He occasionally revels in behaving like a child during recorded tasks because he knows how much it irritates Paul.
- Miles Gloriosus: He talks a big game and frequently tries to get the studio audience to cheer for him, but usually falls short of winning his tasks.
- Naked People Are Funny: When tasked with making a tree look sexy, Guy decides to strip down to his underwear and climb up. Then, he decided what was missing was nudity and forced Paul to remove his underwear for him.
- Porn Stache: Guy had grown a bushy mustache and styled his hair into a ducktail in the time between the prerecorded tasks and studio recording, which made him appear sleazy. This gets lampshaded in the studio when Brynley brings in babushka doll representations of the cast wearing their prerecorded task outfits:Angella: I like that Guy looks like he's gonna get cancellednote .
Guy: [gesturing to his face] And since that, I have changed my look and I've made it worse. - Rockers Smash Guitars: During his anthem for Libya, he opted to smash up an acoustic guitar and a ukelele before Paul stopped him from smashing up more instruments.
- Trash the Set: Decided to suddenly knock over the suit of armour at the Taskmaster Ranch, which forced the production to pay NZD $654 (US $456) to repair the damages.
"The Wickedly Talented" Leigh Hart
"This could be a political disaster."
A New Zealand comedian, radio presenter and performance artist. He is best known for writing and starring on late night comedy show Moon TV and for his role on TVNZ 2 sports comedy show Sports Cafe.- Censored for Comedy: In "D.A.P.", Leigh sings a song, but the music and lyrics are bleeped out with on-screen text explaining that they had to be censored for copyright reasons, with only Paul's dumbfounded reaction being shown on camera.
- Genre Blind: He says on multiple occasions that he doesn't fully understand what the show is about and demonstrates confusion as to whether he should take the competition or the comedy more seriously.Leigh: I don't even know what show we're on.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The Big Guy to Angella's Tiny Girl whenever they are partnered up for team tasks.
- Nature Tinkling: He disappears during one team task, and Angella eventually finds him "making wees" behind the shed.
- Nice Guy: Leigh offers more than once to get Paul a drink when he leaves to get tools for a task.
- Phrase Catcher: Paul will consistently introduce him as "The Wickedly Talented Leigh Hart."
- Product Placement: He brought in some Snacka Changi chips (a brand he has a stake in) for a prize task, prompting Madeleine and Jeremy to start mockingly shilling them directly to the camera.
- Real Men Cook: He often shows off his manliness (such as in the press-ups and karate chop live tasks) and his love of cooking (such bringing in chips from his own brand and making sandwiches for himself and the crew.)
- Supreme Chef: For the "commit a crime" task he decides to make a bad cheese toasty by using a "half-assed Colby" for the cheese and adding mustard to it... and then when he takes a bite alongside Paul, discovers that it actually works together really well. Paul suggests that his real crime wasn't making more of them.
Madeleine Sami
I don't know if I talk about this enough, but I was Dux Ludorum at Onehunga High School...
A New Zealand actress, director, comedian and musician. She is best known for creating and starring in Three comedy series Super City and co-writing, co-directing and starring in 2018 film The Breaker Upperers.- Broke the Rating Scale: Jeremy considered her nicho box prize submission to be bad, but not quite as bad as the worst so he opted to give her 1.5 points rather than two or one, making her the only Taskmaster contestant to have a score total that isn't a whole number.
- Genre Savvy: On multiple occasions, she used imagery from cricket on tasks that would have to be subjectively judged by Jeremy, knowing that he's a huge cricket fan and would respond positively.
- Incompatible Orientation: Madeleine occasionally makes sexual jokes about men before quipping that she doesn't know why she's making those jokes because she's married to a woman and has no interest towards men in that regard.
- Limited Wardrobe: She wore the same lilac suit for all the studio recordings, eventually drawing attention to it during an episode introduction.Madeleine: It's the same suit...the same suit.
- Running Gag: Whenever Jeremy compliments her on her athleticism, she mentions that she was her school's Dux Ludorumnote .
