Adam Kay

Adam Richard Kay (born 12 June 1980) is a British TV writer, author, comedian and former doctor. He is the author of the memoir This Is Going to Hurt, about his time as a doctor. His television writing credits include This Is Going to Hurt (based on his memoir of the same name), Crims, Mrs. Brown's Boys and Mitchell and Webb.

Early life and education Adam Kay was born in Brighton, England, to Stewart and Naomi Kay, and grew up in a Jewish household with three siblings. His father being a doctor, Kay describes becoming a doctor as being a default decision. The Kay family was from Poland, the original family name being Strykowski. While at medical school, he founded the musical comedy group Amateur Transplants and wrote for BBC Radio 4.

Career Kay initially trained in obstetrics and gynaecology before turning to writing.

Medicine Kay worked as a doctor between 2004 and 2010, leaving the profession after a patient's caesarean section was complicated by an undiagnosed placenta praevia;

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 a Sunday Times bestseller. The paperback edition was also a Sunday Times number one bestseller, a position it held for over a year and selling more than 2.5 million copies. It was chosen as Book of the Year in the UK's 2018 National Book Awards. The book was well received by critics, including in the literary pages of The Times, Financial Times, Guardian, and The Scotsman.

In addition to being named Book of the Year, This Is Going to Hurt 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. This Is Going to Hurt has been translated into 28 languages, achieving number-one status internationally. It was the UK's second-best selling book of 2018. On 6 July 2018, the BBC announced that Kay would be adapting This Is Going to Hurt as a seven-part comedy-drama for BBC One. It was made by Sister Pictures and Kay is one of the co-executive producers. Part one of the series, also titled This Is Going to Hurt, was broadcast on 8 February 2022. Kay was awarded a BAFTA for his writing of the show at the 2023 British Academy Television Craft Awards.

Kay's second book, Twas the Nightshift before Christmas, was released in October 2019.

Kay is now an established screenwriter, having written and co-created the 2015 BBC Three sitcom series Crims – along with Grandma's House writer Dan Swimer, with other television work as a writer and script editor including 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.

Since 2020, Kay has written and released several children's books.

In 2022, he published Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients.

In 2025, he published his first novel: A Particularly Nasty Case.

Performing Kay has sold out shows for six years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has also had sell-out nationwide UK tours. His 2018 tour of This Is Going to Hurt sold out a season at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), the largest venue of the Edinburgh Fringe, and a week at the Garrick Theatre, before culminating in two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo. He performs regularly at cultural events including the Latitude Festival, and the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Kay won Best Musical Variety Act at the 2014 London Cabaret Awards and has been named by the Evening Standard as one of London's most influential people.

He has performed songs on the topical BBC Radio 4 series The Now Show and has appeared on numerous TV shows, such as The Russell Howard Hour on Sky One, BBC Breakfast, Lorraine, Peston on Sunday and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

Books 2017: This Is Going to Hurt 2020: Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You 2020: Adam Kay and Henry Paker, Kay's Anatomy: A Complete (and Completely Disgusting) Guide to the Human Body 2021: Adam Kay and Henry Paker, Kay's Marvellous Medicine: A Gross and Gruesome History of the Human Body 2022: Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients 2023: Adam Kay and Henry Paker, Amy Gets Eaten 2023: Adam Kay and Henry Paker, Kay's Incredible Inventions 2024: Adam Kay and others, Charlie and the Christmas Factory. 2024: Adam Kay and Henry Paker, Dexter Procter the 10-Year-Old Doctor Kay married James Farrell in 2018, and together they have two children through surrogacy which he announced in June 2023. Kay and his family live in Oxfordshire, England.