fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Katherine Frances Brand (born 1979), known as Katy Brand, is an English actress, comedian and writer, known for her ITV2 series Katy Brand's Big Ass Show[1][2] and for Comedy Lab Slap on Channel 4.

Katy Brand
Brand hosts the 2017 Freedom of Expression Awards
Born	Katherine Frances Brand 1979 (age 42–43) Buckinghamshire, England
Alma mater	Keble College, Oxford
Occupation	Actress, comedian, television writer
Years active	2001–present
Television	Big Ass Show Mongrels

Early life and education

Brand was born in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1979, and enjoyed making people laugh with her impressions as a young child.[3]

Brand attended St Clement Danes School in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire. Following a summer holiday at 13 with friends who were evangelical Christians she embraced their faith and attended church five times a week.[4]

Motivated to read theology at Keble College, Oxford,[5][6] she then lost her religious beliefs while a student.[7][3] Interviewed for the Evening Standard in 2007, she commented: "After about a year, I realised it was mostly rubbish and that things are never as simple as they seem when you are 13".[4]

While at Oxford, she started to write and perform comedy, musicals and serious plays, joining the Oxford Revue and the university's dramatic society.[3]

Brand won Celebrity Mastermind in an edition broadcast in May 2021.

Career

After graduation, Brand did not work as a performer, gaining employment in television production for five years instead,[3] but her social encounters with university contemporaries ultimately convinced her to try working as a comedian.[8] In 2004 she wrote a comedy monologue, performing it around a few pubs in London before joining Ealing Live, a weekly live spot.[3]

Brand established her name with her solo stand-up act at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005.[3]

In 2008, she collaborated with Katherine Parkinson, one of her friends from university,[9] on a BBC Radio 4 series called Mouth Trap.[10]

Brand performed in Katy Brand's Big Ass Tour 2010.[11] She also competed on Let's Dance for Sport Relief in 2010, in which she danced to Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)".[12] Also in 2010, she made a guest appearance on the song "Stop Giving Me Verses" by The Hoosiers, which was an attempt to break the world record for the longest single ever released.[13]

In 2011, Brand took part in the BBC Learning project "Off By Heart Shakespeare", where she played the role of Titania from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and delivered a performance of the speech "Out of this wood do not desire to go".[14]

In 2011 she guest-hosted a Children in Need special episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks,[15] and has participated in several other episodes of the show.[16][17] In December 2012 she participated in the 2012 Christmas Special of the dance show, Strictly Come Dancing. Her partner was Anton du Beke; they came second to last.[18]

Brand presented the Penguin Podcast for Penguin Books until February 2021,[19] which included interviews with authors such as Michael Morpurgo (War Horse), Markus Zusak (The Book Thief) and Gabourey Sidibe.[20]

She published her debut novel Brenda Monk is Funny in 2014, a story about a woman trying to establish a career as a comedian.[3] Her debut play 3Women starring Anita Dobson opened at Trafalgar Studios 2 in May 2018 and is published by Samuel French.[20] Her latest book I Carried a Watermelon was published by HarperCollins Publishers in October 2019.[21]

In March 2020, she took the role of Miss Hedge in the West End musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie.[22]

As of February 2021^[update], the comedy feature film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, scripted by Brand, starring Emma Thompson and directed by Sophie Hyde, is in the pre-production stage.[23][24][25][26] It has since been completed and aired on Hulu.

Awards

In 2008 she won "Best Female Newcomer" in the 2008 British Comedy Awards.[27] and was also nominated for a Royal Television Society Award the same year.

Filmography

Year	Project	Role	Notes
2006	Comedy Lab: Slap (TV)		Channel 4
	Tittybangbang (TV)	Various	BBC Three
	Hyperdrive (TV)	Alien 2	BBC Two
	Casualty (TV)	Jill Grainger	BBC One
	Comedy Cuts (TV)	Various	ITV2
	Under One Roof (TV)	Various	Writer, alongside James Bachman
	Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor	Various	BBC Three
2007	Peep Show (TV)	Lucy	Channel 4
	Katy Brand's Big Ass Show (TV)	Various	ITV2
	Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive	Debbie	BBC Three
2008	Headcases (TV)	Various	ITV
	Placebo (TV)		BBC Three
2009	Good Arrows	Big Sheila
2010	Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang	Miss Turvey
	Let's Dance for Sport Relief (TV)	Herself	Danced to "Single Ladies" by Beyoncé
	Argumental (TV)	Herself	Dave (TV Channel)
	The Bubble (TV)	Herself	BBC Two
	Mongrels (TV)	Kali	BBC Three
	Katy Brand vs...[28]	Herself	ITV2
	Never Mind the Buzzcocks (TV)	Herself	BBC Two
	Ask Rhod Gilbert (TV)	Herself	BBC One
2011	Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask	Herself	Dave
2014	Walking on Sunshine[29]	Lil	Vertigo Films
2015	Mapp and Lucia (TV)	Hermione Pillson	BBC One
2016	Hank Zipzer (TV)	Kathleen Murray	CBBC, one episode "Zipzers and Aliens"
2019	Pilgrimage: Road to Rome	Herself	BBC Two
2019	Midsomer Murders (TV)	Jemima Starling	ITV, one episode "The Miniature Murders "
2020	Paintball Massacre

References

External links

• Official Katy Brand Website
• Katy Brand at IMDb

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