British comedian, actor and television presenter Sir Lenny Henry will be the host for the first ever Dezeen Awards ceremony taking place later this month.
Lenny Henry, who has been a mainstay of the British entertainment industry for over 40 years, will be hosting the event and presenting the winners with bespoke, uniquely-designed trophies by Dutch design studio AtelierNL made using London clay, the material that underlies Dezeen's home city.
Born in August 1958 in Dudley, West Midlands, Lenny Henry debuted his career by appearing on a talent show called New Faces and left school to try his luck as a comedian in 1975.
Since then, he appeared in various television programmes including The Fosters as Sonny Foster in 1976, children's TV show Tiswas as character Algernon Winston Razamatazz from 1978 to 1981, and the stand-up comedy movie Lenny Henry: Lenny Live and Unleashed in 1989. Lenny Henry also starred in the hit BBC show Chef! as Gareth Blackstock in 1993, which grew popular in the United States as well.
The comedian co-founded the charity Comic Relief in response to the Ethiopian famine back in 1985 with the vision of creating a poverty-free world. In 2015, he was knighted by the Queen for his services to drama and charity.
He will present trophies to the project category winners as well as the best architecture studio, interiors studio and design studio of the year in both the emerging and established categories.
Awards will also be presented to the overall best architecture project, interiors project and design project of the year, selected from the winners of the eight project categories in each of the three sectors.
Dezeen Awards attracted more than 3,500 entries from 91 different countries and will celebrate the world’s best architecture, interiors and design at a dazzling ceremony in London on 27 November.
Tickets to the ceremony are now on sale, please email awards@dezeen.com if you are interested in purchasing a ticket.