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El Gran Wyoming (born 1955)

José Miguel Monzón Navarro, better known by his stage name El Gran Wyoming, is a comedian, television presenter, actor, musician, writer and columnist. He is currently the host of the television show El Intermedio broadcast from Monday to Thursday on La Sexta channel.

Wyoming was born in Madrid into a family of pharmacists and he trained as a doctor. He practised as a doctor for a short time only, giving up this career to enter the entertainment business. He was a guitarist in his group Paracelso, and then moved on to performing in comedy reviews. Eventually he linked up with a group of fellow comedians to make the comedy film “Muertos de Risa” (Dying of Laughter).

He went on to host several television shows but was banned from Spanish National television after making disrespectful jokes about the royal family during a live interview. In 1996 Wyoming returned to television, but this time the private channel Telecinco, where he presented a number of satirical programmes. He finally lost his job again after making repeated satirical attacks on the then president of Spain, José María Aznar.

During Aznar’s second term of office, El Gran Wyoming was a prominent participant in public demonstrations against PP (Popular Party) policies, particularly regarding Spain’s involvement in the invasion of Iraq alongside Britain and the United States, a policy that was reversed with the change of government in 2004. In May 2007 he released in his first documentary work, “El Severo me duele” (Severo Hurts), an exposé of alleged medical irregularities in the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganés, Madrid.

Since 2006, El Gran Wyoming has presented the nightly programme “El Intermedio”, which takes a satirical view of daily news items and current affairs. The programme has a live audience and consistently high viewing rates. Its contents have embroiled Wyoming in controversy on many occasions with both politicians and journalists from other channels.

In 2013 El Gran Wyoming wrote the book “No Somos Locos” (We're Not Crazy) in which he reviews contemporary Spanish history arguing with characteristic humour and irony that the present political crisis is the consequence of past events.