Chris McCausland is a 47-year-old British comedian, television host and podcaster from Liverpool.

He moved to London to study at Kingston University in 1996, where he got a software engineering degree.

However, his career in the field stalled due to retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder that causes the retina to degenerate. He’s been completely blind since the age of 22.

In 2003, he pivoted to stand-up comedy, and within the first year he came third in Channel 4-sponsored competition So You Think You’re Funny? at Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s Gilded Balloon. He was only beaten by Nick Sun and Russell Kane.

Since then, he has appeared all over the world, taking six stand-up shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and becoming a regular face on TV panel shows.

At the festival in 2008, he met his wife, Patricia, and they married in 2012. Together they have one daughter, Sophie, who was born in 2014.

In 2006, Chris joined the cast of CBeebies show Me Too! playing Rudi, a fruit and veg trader at Riverseafingal Market and father of Jack.

Chris has also been a regular face on TV panel shows and chat shows including Would I Lie To You?, The Last Leg and 8 Out Of 10 Cats.

After presenting an award at the Baftas in 2022, a clip of Chris and co-presenter Lee Mack went viral with Chris’s self-deprecating humours and Lee’s deadpan responses.

In 2023, he joined the all-star line-up for Scared Of The Dark, an experimental reality show hosted by Danny Dyer that tested celebrities’ resolve to spend eight days in complete darkness. He completed the task, although Paul Gascoigne was declared the winner of the show.

Chris was announced as the first ever blind contestant of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2024, and was partnered with professional dancer Dianne Buswell.

At the time of writing (September 2024) he remains in the competition, and has become a favourite to win.

In Sky’s new Original Christmas movie, Chris will play Scott, who has a contentious relationship with his neighbour, Neil (played by Lee Mack).

Scott knows how to get under Neil’s skin, leaving up Christmas lights all-year round, messing up their bins and proving himself a general annoyance – even though everyone apart from Neil seems to love him.

According to the synopsis: “Tensions escalate when the residents appoint Scott as the new head of Neighbourhood Watch, upsetting Neil who questions his suitability for the role. Their animosity escalates into a series of retaliations, culminating in Neil accidentally triggering a power outage that plunges the entire street into darkness on Christmas Eve!

“Forced to abandon their festive plans, the neighbourhood evacuates, leaving Neil and Scott alone and on guard. When an infamous local crime family decides to rob the entire street in one night, the pair must set aside their differences and collaborate to thwart them.

“They’ve got no lights, no cameras, no alarms, and one of them is blind, which might just be an advantage…”