Katherine Frances Brand (born 13 January 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 LabSlap on Channel 4.
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]
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]
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 in 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 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]
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 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.
