British series:
Series: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen
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
Joanne McNally
An Irish actress, writer, stand-up comedian, and radio host known for co-hosting the podcast My Therapist Ghosted Me.
- Always Second Best: In the first four episodes alone, Joanne has managed to place second each time — only losing once via a tiebreaker and by one point in two other episodes. She eventually wins Episode 6.
- National Stereotypes: Greg points out that her immediate first idea in the thumb war task in episode 6 is to get drunk. She says he's taking it too far when he suggests she might also come in wearing a leprechaun costume.
- Perverse Sexual Lust: For Mr Blobby of all people.
John Robins
"Considering the number of health and safety discussions I've had over the course of this series..."
A stand-up comedian and radio presenter. Co-host of the Bad Golf YouTube channel with Alex Horne.
- The Ace: Rarely sets a foot wrong in tasks, resulting in him winning three of the first five episodes outright, and tying in another.
- Black Comedy: After it's revealed that the contestants had handled rum in a task, John asks Alex if the "r" in "rum" stood for "relapse", as he's in recovery. Alex is quick to say that it was non-alcoholic rum.
- Competition Freak:
- He clearly wants to win, as he regularly double checks the tasks to make sure he stays within their parameters. This makes him amusingly easy to wind up in the studio as Greg just needs to hint that he may disqualify John to provoke a nervous breakdown. Unlike other examples, however, he doesn't try to nitpick and tear down others' task attempts.
- On the podcast, he confesses to going so far as to maintain a spreadsheet during filming so he could track how he felt he was doing in an attempt to gauge how he'd do in the studio when Greg handed out points.
- He exploits this for comedy in the live task in episode 5, advising Steve to push his horse off the edge of the Knappett.
- Genre Savvy: He bears the hallmarks of someone familiar with Taskmaster, as he checks beneath things to look for clues and hidden tasks.
- Serious Business: A big Queen fan (hence his Freddie Mercury costume), he's mortified when he messes up his answer to a Queen trivia question from Alex in episode 6. Greg jokes he'll be thrown out of the Queen fan club, John admits he is actually a member of the Queen fan club.
- The Teetotaler: John is in recovery and is visibly uncomfortable when he learns that he was exposed to rum in one task and wonders if the "r" needed for the task note stood for "rum" or "relapse".
- Whole Costume Reference: John wears a replica of Freddie Mercury's yellow jacket for his pre-recorded tasks.
Nick Mohammed
"I don't think I've done this one right!"
An actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his character Mr. Swallow and for playing Nathan Shelley in Ted Lasso.
- Face of a Thug: Nick is dressed as a vampire, complete with sinister make-up, but he's one of the nicest, friendliest contestants to ever appear on the show.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Nick does his tasks while dressed as Dracula, and eagle-eyed viewers will notice that his reflection has been removed from reflective surfaces wherever possible.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Nick's task outfit is a Shout-Out to Dracula, complete with vampiric make-up.
- Nice Guy: Consistently polite and kind to the rest of the cast. He is so nice that, on the podcast, Ed admits that it pains him whenver he sees Nick fail a task.
- One Head Shorter: Referenced in "Grappling With My Life", when Nick, who is the shortest male contestant of this series, describes himself as being physically different to Greg.
- That Came Out Wrong: For the team task in "A Three Ring Man", Nick asks Steve if he has any aches and pains with his body. He asks this to make sure that he doesn't accidentally cause Steve any pain during the task; but the task is shown in an episode where Steve has been constantly reminded of his mortality, so Nick's question ends up coming across as another jab at Steve's age.
Sophie Willan
An actress, comedian, and writer, best known for narrating The Circle and her BAFTA-winning sitcom Alma's Not Normal.
- Butt-Monkey: Prone to somewhat lacklustre task entries in the Taskmaster's eyes, to the point where he often acts incredulously on the rare occasion she does well. In particular, she wins two different tasks in episode five, and comes close to winning the episode.
- Epic Fail: Her attempt to complete the "Hoopla Gary" task is so disastrous that Alex comments on it long before the attempt is shown. Her first attempt to throw a hula hoop has her throw it into a tree, and she fails to hoopla Gary with her subsequent attempts. She resorts to attempting to hop down the river to keep her limbs dry, gets caught in quicksand, and to add insult to injury fails to complete the task.
- Hidden Depths: She's very good at drawing — and especially adept at drawing cute cartoon cows. Greg notes that rumours of her skills have been making their way through the stand-up circuit.
Steve Pemberton
An actor, comedian and writer, best known for starring and writing for The League of Gentlemen, Psychoville and Inside No. 9.
- Calculator Spelling: The prize task in "Junmungo" is the most fun thing when turned upside down. Steve brings in a calculator, initially pointing out that 5318008 spells 'boobies' when turned upside down, before he presents an entire haiku written in this format.
- Call-Back: Bizarrely, Taskmaster marks the second time that Steve has created a cryptic crossword to be released in a national newspaper and relating to his appearance on a television program - in this case the date coincided with filming, while previously it coincided with the airdate of "the episode in question"
- Cool Old Guy: The oldest contestant of the series, Steve is a legend of the British comedy scene and is consistently lauded for his strong performances and creativity.
- Crossword Puzzle: Steve is a noted fan of them, occasionally writing cryptic crosswords for The Guardian under the pseudonym "The Sphinx", having previously done so to advertise the Inside No. 9 episode "Riddle of the Sphinx" His price task entry in "Three Ring Man" is a crossword puzzle of his own design published in The Guardian that day, in which he hid a message asking for five points. He is of course rewarded for his effort.
- Genre Savvy: Like John, he often checks beneath tables and looks around for clues and hidden tasks.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- For the egg task in "Grappling With My Life", Steve breaks the egg on his way out of the living room. He reveals on the podcast that he had deliberately broken his egg to be funny, under the belief that he had already completed the task. Instead, this results in his disqualification.
- Crossing over with Too Clever by Half, his love of creativity and puns hobbles him when he needs to solve an acrostic by identifying items hidden in gloves. He gets carried away with coming up with funny names for the items so his guesses didn't line up to spell anything coherent.
- Pungeon Master: Prone to making puns throughout the series.
- Shout-Out:
- For the egg task, Steve decides to put the egg in a toy coach, because the coach has a 9 painted on the side. In other words, the egg will be Inside No. 9.
- In the team task in "Grappling With My Life", when Steve and Nick are discussing how to depict their giraffe giving birth, Steve asks if the giraffe should have its "legs akimbo".
- His attempt in the "Create Tension" task is a reference to The Deer Hunter, with Hangman used as a substitution for Russian Roulette.
- Too Clever by Half: As noted above, his decision to assign punny names in the gloves task prevents him from solving the acrostic.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Steve is constantly reminded of his mortality and that he is the oldest contestant in "A Three Ring Man".
