Andrew Pierce (born Patrick Connolly; February 1961)[1][3] is a British journalist, editor, author, broadcaster and political commentator.
[1] He spent the first two years of his life in Nazareth House, a Catholic orphanage in Cheltenham,[1] and was adopted by a family from Swindon and brought up on a council estate there.
Pierce and Maguire continue their double act reviewing, previewing and dissecting the media and politics on the BBC, ITV and Sky News.
[15] In a BBC documentary in 2018 about Greg Owen and the court case National AIDS Trust v NHS Service Commissioning Board, Pierce strongly criticised the idea of taxpayer-funded PrEP, a preventative medication to protect against contracting HIV: "That's what this is about: indulging gay men who don't want to use a condom.
[citation needed] During his tenure as chair of the Iris Prize, Pierce oversaw a number of key developments in the festival.
In 2014, at a launch reception, Pierce announced a new strand at the Iris Prize Festival, Best British Short,[17] and helped secure a sponsorship deal with the Pinewood Studios Group totalling £14,000 in post-production sound for the winning filmmaker.