Wade Christian McElwain (born June 1, 1972) is a Canadian comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

, writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, and TV producer.

Early life

Wade was born in Mississauga, Ontario

Mississauga, Ontario

Mississauga is a city in Southern Ontario located in the Regional Municipality of Peel, and in the western part of the Greater Toronto Area. With an estimated population of 734,000, it is Canada's sixth-most populous municipality, and has almost doubled in population in each of the last two decades...

 to Mary (Hosier) and Harvie McElwain. At the age of 5, Wade and his older siblings brother Brad and sister Leslie moved to the rural acclimes of Heidelberg where he lived in a predominantly Mennonite Community.

Wade attended Waterloo-Oxford D.S.S. in Baden, Ontario

Baden, Ontario

Baden is a community in Township of Wilmot, Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It has a population of less than 1000 and was named after Baden-Baden in Germany...

 where he distinguished himself as a member of the trivia challenge show "Reach for the Top

Reach for the Top

Reach for the Top is a Canadian game show in which teams of high school students participate in local, provincial and eventually national trivia tournaments...

", where his team won the Provincial Championship and earned him a scholarship to the University of Western Ontario.

At Western Wade joined the Pi Kappa Alpha

Pi Kappa Alpha

Pi Kappa Alpha is a Greek social fraternity with over 230 chapters and colonies and over 250,000 lifetime initiates in the United States and Canada.-History:...

 Fraternity where he held the title of Social Director. Wade was also a cartoonist for the Western newspaper "The Gazette".

Comedy

After finishing his degree, Wade was on to law school until he decided to try his hand at stand-up comedy. His first time on stage in 1996 was at Yuk Yuk's "Crash and Burn Mondays". Within a year however Wade won the title of Yuk Yuk's "Funniest New Comedian in Canada". In the years following he won "Best New Stand-Up" at the 2000 Canadian Comedy Awards, as well as a Just For Laughs "Best Homegrown Comic" award for Southern Ontario.
In 2007, Wade moved to London, England and is very active on the massive stand-up circuit.
As a headliner he can be seen at 'The Comedy Store'; 'Up the Creek', 'Highlight' and 'The Kingshead'.
In August 2011 he premiered his show 'The Littlest Hobo' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show mainly deals with Wade's comedy mid-life crisis as he explores his journey into stand-up and his future in the profession.

"Gutter Ball Alley"

After a successful hour-long 'Comedy Now' special Wade was approached by the Comedy Network to come up with some ideas for his own show for the new network. He created "Gutter Ball Alley", and along with executive producer and co-host Johnny Gardhouse they produced 29 episodes of the show.
Games like 'What Weighs More than a Midget', 'Who Shat?' and 'Jesus, Buddha Manson' featured appearances from Jordan Prentice, Angelo Tsarouchas, and Darren Frost.

The show caught the attention of Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...

 Broadway Video

Broadway Video

Broadway Video is a media production and distribution company located within the Brill Building on Broadway, New York, United States. Founded in 1979 as a production house tasked with post-production work on Saturday Night Live, Broadway Video has since become one of the largest independent...

 who optioned the show for US release. The show was never picked up for season 3, despite a cult fan base.

"Ultimate Destination"

Wade produced, hosted, and distributed "Ultimate Destination", a humorous look at what rambunctious college kids do while on spring break. Thirteen episodes of the program were ordered by mentv

Mentv

The Cave is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel dedicated to airing lifestyle and entertainment programming aimed at men. It is currently owned by Groupe TVA and Shaw Media.-History:...

, a digital channel, for CanWest

CanWest Global Communications

Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate brand Canwest, was a major Canadian media company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place...

 media. It did find a home on the National Lampoon

National Lampoon Inc

National Lampoon, Incorporated is a company formed in 2002 in order to use the brand name "National Lampoon" in comedy and entertainment. In the words of its prospectus, the role of the company is to "develop, produce, provide creative services and distribute National Lampoon branded comedic...

Network in the US as well as being syndicated to Turkey and Hungary. The show has found a following online with over 4.5 million views since 2010.

TV writing and production

McElwain also write and produced other programs such as the Global TV show "Double Down", Canada's "Gemini Awards", and the Canadian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire".
His trivia background led him to being the creative producer for the Comedy Network's "You Bet Your Ass." He was also a producer for Yuk Yuk's "Great Canadian Laugh Off" which also aired on the Comedy Network.
Since moving to the UK in 2007, his company CVS Television has been busy in the ad funded genre producing comedy, travel and cooking series for a variety of clients and networks.
In 2011 he began production on "Triviala Live', a unique game show which was the first to migrate from online to TV. This 30 hour series airs February 28 on Showcase.

Personal life

Wade became engaged to fellow comedian Katherine Ryan in the summer of 2007. Katherine recently won the title of Funniest New Comedian in Britain at the 2008 Nivea Funny Women Awards. They both live in Crouch End in London.

Selected work

• Gutter Ball Alley- 1998-2001
• Ultimate Destination- 2002
• You Bet Your Ass-2005-2006
• Your Kinda TV-2007
• Spooks-2009
• Crisis 2-2010
• Triviala Live-2011