Multi award-winning stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and actor Ricky Gervais received the 2019 Richard Dawkins Award in London on September 3, 2019. The Richard Dawkins Award has been given since 2003, but this was the inaugural award under auspices of the Center for Inquiry (CFI). New guidelines for the award, drafted by Richard Dawkins and adopted in June 2019 by the CFI board (on which Dawkins serves), state that “The recipient will be a distinguished individual from the worlds of science, scholarship, education, or entertainment who publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead.”
Gervais is known for his brilliant wit, often deployed in his public appearances to advocate entertainingly for science, rationalism, critical thinking, and secularism, always with humor and a ready smile.