Who is Chaser Paul Sinha and what has he said about his Parkinson's diagnosis?

27 April 2020, 20:06 | Updated: 2 December 2020, 09:08

Beat The Chasers - The Chase spin off show

Who is Paul Sinha from The Chase? Is he married? And what has he said about his Parkinson's diagnosis? Find out everything...

The Chase is back with a whole new series called 'Beat The Chasers."

Bradley Walsh will be presenting the show which sees the likes of Mark Labbett, Anne Hegerty, Shaun Wallace, Paul Sinha and Jenny Ryan take on one player at a time.

But what do we know about Paul Sinha 'The Sinnerman'? And what has he said about his Parkinson's disease diagnosis?

Who is Paul Sinha and how old is he?

Paul Sinha, 49, is a British comedian, broadcaster, and professional quiz player.

He qualified from St George's Hospital Medical School in the 1990s and became a general practitioner.

Chase contestant does a dance after defeating The Sinnerman

He began performing stand-up while working as a junior doctor in hospitals in London and King's Lynn.

In 1999, he came third in the final of the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year and spent years combining touring with his medical career.

Paul’s breakthrough came with his second solo Edinburgh show, Saint or Sinha?, which earned him an if.comeddie nomination in 2006.

The star has also appeared on The Weakest Link, University Challenge: The Professionals, Are You an Egghead?, Mastermind and Brain of Britain.

In 2011, Paul joined The Chase with the nickname "The Sinnerman".

He also took 11th place in the 2018 World Quizzing Championships and became the British Quizzing Champion in September 2019.

Who is Paul Sinha's partner and is he married?

Paul Sinha married his long-term partner Olly in December 2019.

After getting engaged 11 months earlier, the TV quizzer announced the exciting news on his blog.

The pair wed in front of 38 guests, but invited 300 of their nearest and dearest to the reception.

He shared: "We'd worked all year on this day, and the service was meant to be the easy bit. Registry office, 38 guests, traditional script. When I saw the guests turn up, I did that thing I do so frequently. I broke down in tears.

"The reason I couldn’t relax was: at six o’clock, three-hundred friends from every walk of life I’ve ever had were about to turn up to the pub, for the 'disco' — which, in reality, was a six-and-a-half-hour multimedia audiovisual extravaganza, that was due to start at six-thirty."

What has Paul Sinha said about his Parkinson’s diagnosis?

The Chase star revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which sees parts of the brain become progressively damaged, via a blog post in June.

In the post shared with his 109k followers, the quizzer wrote: “I have Parkinson’s disease. I will fight this with every breath I have.’ ‘Looking back to those two weeks after the diagnosis I think I had a breakdown,’ Paul told The i, recalling attending his first gig and ‘belting out jokes at 100 mph.’

He said he’d been suffering with a ‘frozen shoulder’ since September 2017, but during his sold-out New Zealand tour, Paul realised that a limp he had developed was getting worse.

Paul Sinha jokingly leaves during The Chase after answer is revealed

“The next day in a cab I decided to Google the words ‘frozen shoulder’ and ‘Parkinson’s’. And I knew I had Parkinson’s,” he said.

Undergoing MRI scans in June, Paul was forced to miss the World Quizzing Championships and cancel his Edinburgh Fringe run.

But in September 2019, Paul won the title of British Quiz Champion after beating Eggheads stars Kevin Ashman and Pat Gibson.

Fellow Chaser Mark Labbett heaped praise on brainy co-star, Tweeting: “Paul Sinha has just become the British Quizzing Champion which considering his early onset Parkinson’s, shows just how remarkable that is.”