Matt Lucas announces his autism diagnosis before his performance in West End's 'Oliver'

Matt Lucas recently got candid and opened up about his autism ahead of his performance as Fagin in Oliver in Oliver.

The 52-year-old American actor and comedian illuminated Romesh Ranganathan's BBC Radio 2 show last week, where he talked about his diagnosis for the first time in public.

Lucas revealed, “I've never, ever spoken about this publicly, but I'm autistic,” adding that he is making changes to fulfil his neurodivergent needs by quipping that he enjoys “periods of being very sociable, like you are in the theatre, and then I also enjoy those periods of solitude where I can just write on my own.”

His revelation prompted Ranganathan to ask him, “Do you find that you need to recharge each battery, like you're kind of flitting between those two things?”

The Gladiator 2 star responded, “Yeah, and so on my days off, you know you do theatre six days a week, and on my day off apart from resting and resting my voice and all of that, on my day off I like not to see people and give them a break from me.”

“I am one of the few people who doesn't mind being ill. 'You know when you are really ill and you have to cancel everything for a week and you lose your voice, I think ‘Oh lovely I am ill. I don't have to see anybody.’”

“But just to have that recharge time is quite important to me,” Matt Lucas stated.

It is pertinent to mention that Matt Lucas will play in the West End production of Oliver at the Gielgud Theatre for a limited six-week run from September 22 to November 1, 2026.