Ventriloquism.org

Ventriloquist

Paul Zerdin

British ventriloquist who parlayed a childhood puppet theater into a magic-shop apprenticeship and a $1 million America's Got Talent win.

  • b. 1972
  • From GB
  • Active 1990s–present
  • Figures 1

Early Life

Zerdin got his start at age ten when a family friend built him a puppet theater, which he used to stage his own shows. School did not go well for him — he failed his GCSEs — so he took a job in a magic shop instead, where he picked up sleight-of-hand skills alongside his growing interest in performing. He worked children's parties on the side, building a practical, audience-facing style well before he had any television exposure.

Career

Zerdin's first TV appearance came as a magician on the BBC's Tricky Business. At twenty he landed a two-year hosting contract on the Disney-produced children's show Rise and Shine for GMTV. His breakout moment arrived in 1996, when he won LWT's The Big Big Talent Show outright by a margin of over 100,000 votes, a contest hosted by Jonathan Ross. The following year he performed at The Prince's Trust Gala Show.

During the 2016–17 holiday season, Zerdin took the role of Buttons in the London Palladium's staging of Cinderella, working his puppet Sam into the pantomime's audience-participation sequences. The Radio Times singled out the pairing as unusually sharp for the format, praising his rapport with the crowd.

Got Talent

Zerdin auditioned for the tenth season of America's Got Talent in 2015 and won the finals outright on September 16 of that year, taking home $1 million and a headline residency. That show, Mouthing Off, opened at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas on May 14, 2016, but closed after four months on September 4 due to weak ticket sales. Zerdin returned to the Got Talent franchise in 2019, competing in both America's Got Talent: The Champions and Britain's Got Talent: The Champions, but did not reach the final in either.

Figures

  • Sam—

Timeline

  • 1996 — Won LWT's The Big Big Talent Show by over 100,000 votes
  • 1997 — Performed at The Prince's Trust Gala Show
  • 2015 — Won the tenth season of America's Got Talent
  • 2016 — Headlined Mouthing Off at Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas (May 14–September 4)
  • 2016-17 — Played Buttons in the London Palladium's pantomime Cinderella
  • 2019 — Competed in America's Got Talent: The Champions and Britain's Got Talent: The Champions

On video

23 performances cataloged in our archive. needs research: curate + embed the best 5–8; the rest 301 here

Sources

  1. Paul Zerdin — Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-08-13.

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