Foreman was born on 4 October 1984.[1] He was raised in a Jewish household in Stanmore, London, with his brother and sister.[2] His brother Darren is a beatboxer and musician going under the pseudonym Beardyman, who he sometimes collaborates onstage with.[3]
From 1996 to 2003, Foreman was educated at Queen Elizabeth's School,[4] a state grammar school for boys in Barnet, north London, followed by the University of York, where he began performing comedy songs on acoustic guitar in 2005.[5]
Career
Foreman performing in 2011Foreman performing at the Musical Comedy Awards 2022
Foreman was featured as the BBC New Talent Pick of the Fringe 2007, won Best Newcomer at the Tuborg Musical Comedy awards 2009,[6] and came third at the Musical Comedy Awards 2010.[7]
In 2009, Foreman contributed jingles to the weekly comedy podcast Answer Me This!,[8] and in 2011 and 2012, supported comedian Dave Gorman on Dave Gorman's PowerPoint Presentation tour.[9]
Foreman presented The General Election Xplained, a series of educational videos to explain the election process for schoolchildren in Key Stages 3 to 5.[10]
For several years, he has also performed shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which include Disgusting Songs For Revolting Children (And Other Funny Stories), No More Colours and Mixtape.[11]
Foreman created his YouTube channel in April 2006. Its content focuses on a variety of comic educational series such as Unfinished London,Politics Unboringed, and Map Men (presented with Mark Cooper-Jones), as well as music videos for his songs and clips from his comedy shows. In September 2025, the name of the channel was changed from "Jay Foreman" to "Jay and Mark" to represent Mark Cooper-Jones's involvement, particularly in the web series 'Map Men'.[13]
Unfinished London
Unfinished London is an educational mini-series which premiered in 2009. Foreman created and co-writes the series with Paul Kendler, who often features within the episodes themselves. As of 2025[update] there are 15 episodes, with the most recent being released in 2022. The series premiered on YouTube with each episode or set of handling a specific area of the evolution of London's infrastructure, urban planning, and local government. The series was initially only meant to exist as a single episode to function as a skills showcase but the reception convinced Foreman to continue making them.[14]
Politics Unboringed
Politics Unboringed was a series of educational YouTube videos that ran between 2015 and 2017. Each episode is roughly five minutes long and handles various topics relating to British politics. Foreman has no plans to bring the series back, stating that "with everything that’s going on, I now find it impossible, irresponsible even, to maintain the cheery, neutral tone that the series used to have."[14]
Map Men is an edutainment mini-series[15][16] which premiered in 2016. Foreman writes and presents the show with its co-creator Mark Cooper-Jones.[15][16][17] A mix of comedy and geography,[17] its videos regularly attract 1–5 million views on YouTube.[15][16][18] In October 2025, the duo released the book This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters) ( ISBN9780369775030).
Filmography
Year
Title
Role
Notes
2009–present
Unfinished London
Presenter
Co-writer and creator of 15 episodes alongside Paul Kendler
Foreman married Jade Nagi in 2021.[19] They have two sons, born in July 2022 and November 2023.[20][21] He also has two siblings; a brother and a sister.[22] Foreman's family is Jewish, and in a statement written for the London Jewish News in 2018, he described his fondness for his family's Jewish traditions, even though Foreman himself is an atheist (see Jewish atheism).[22] Foreman is considered to be a cartography enthusiast, as demonstrated through his commitment to his web series 'Map Men'.
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