Brett Goldstein (born 17 July 1980) is a British actor, comedian and writer, best known for playing Roy F*cking Kent in the series Ted Lasso. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
for that role in 2021 and 2022. He is also a writer for the show.
He previously won the award for Best Supporting Actor at the British Independent Film Awards in 2016 for his role as Jodie Whittaker's love interest in Adult Life Skills. Apparently unable to make it to the award ceremony because he was performing a stand-up gig, he sent his leading lady to accept the award on his behalf with an acceptance speech that he had written for her and the results are f*cking adorable!
He has also made guest appearances on Doctor Who (again alongside Jodie Whittaker), The Bill and Drunk History and he has performed several stand-up shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He is the host of the podcast Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein, and is a co-creator of Shrinking.
Tropes associated with Brett Goldstein include:
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Roy Kent is a gruff, surly and sometimes violent Perpetual Frowner; Brett Goldstein is chatty and soft-spoken with an easy smile. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, he points out the differences:We were like 5 episodes into writing [the show], and I started to think, 'I think I'm Roy'. But I also thought, 'no one around this table thinks I'm Roy'; because I'm soft-spoken and I love The Muppets, so no one is thinking this [...] I sent in 5 scenes as Roy, and I said "if this is awkward, pretend you never got this email."
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: It's not just his most famous character. Goldstein himself freely admits that a) he has a hard time not swearing during interviews and b) has almost given up on holding back. His 2021 Emmy acceptance speech (which had to be muted more than once during the broadcast) is proof of this. He tried hard not to swear during his 2022 acceptance speech (because the feed for his 2021 speech was cut in the UK, upsetting his family) and managed to hold it in until the end.
