After obtaining a degree in English literature from The University of Manchester,[2] Porter worked as a journalist on the Big Issue in The North. She began to perform stand-up comedy whilst working as a researcher for Granada Television, on programmes such as The Mrs Merton Show. Her first performance was at a club in Chester, a location she chose because it was far enough from home that if it went badly, no one would know her.[3]
As an actress, she made brief appearances in Life's a Pitch and Absolute Power. She presented a TV commercial for mobile phone company One2One during the year 2000.[4] Her first high-profile acting role was alongside Christian Slater in the stage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. She reprised her role of a nurse for the 2005 London production.
In 2005, she made regular appearances on Broken News as Claudia Van Sant.[5]
In May 2007, Porter became host of a The Guardianpodcast, Many Questions and more recently The Heckle. In June 2007, Porter came second in a celebrity edition of The Weakest Link. Porter appeared in 2007 on ITV2's Comedy Cuts, a programme showcasing the best of the British stand-up comedy circuit.
Lucy Porter has recorded her stand-up show The Good Life for a DVD release by independent label Go Faster Stripe,[8] and appeared in the 2008 and 2009 series of Mock the Week.
In 2009, Porter took her show The Bare Necessities on a tour, playing 30 dates between February and June.
In November 2009, Lucy appeared at LIVEstock 2009: Friends of the Earth's comedy and music event at the Hammersmith Apollo in support of the green campaign group's Food Chain Campaign for planet-friendly farming. The same month, Lucy appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, achieving a record-breaking score of 35 with Steve Martin as her specialist subject.
Porter's marriage at the end of 2009 to her long-term partner, fellow comedian Justin Edwards, led to a substantial re-write of her successful 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Fool's Gold for her 2010 UK tour. In the original script, Lucy claimed she was unlikely to ever marry because of an "allergy to gold", meaning she would never be able to put on a wedding ring; on tour, she made a self-deprecating reference to the original material, given that she was then married.[9]
Porter presented FirstPlay, a weekly digital "magazine" for European customers on the PlayStation 3. She hosts the successor show, Access, which is still available weekly on the PlayStation Network.
Porter created Screaming with Laughter, an afternoon mother-and-baby comedy club. The club tours the country to play for parents with infants under a year old.[10]
In 2014, she wrote her debut stage play, The Fair Intellectual Club, which premièred at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Assembly Rooms, directed by Marilyn Imrie. Porter developed this into a comedy series of the same name for BBC Radio 4, featuring much of the same cast and also directed by Imrie.[11] She has since expressed[to whom?] a desire to write more plays for the Festival in the future.
Porter has appeared on three episodes of QI, in series L, M and N.
In February 2017, Porter was a guest on Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.[12] Porter, along with professional quizzer Jenny Ryan, launched in 2018 Fingers On Buzzers, a podcast about quiz and game shows.[13] Along with Ryan, Porter returned to Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in early 2019, and they discussed Fingers On Buzzers and other topics.
In March 2021, Porter chaired the Radio 4 panel game Just a Minute. She was the sixth guest host in the first series since the death of Nicholas Parsons, who had presented almost every episode of the programme since its creation in 1967.
On 6 June 2021 she appeared in the fourth episode of the. BBC Radio 4 programme The Confessional. The series is written and presented by Stephen Mangan.
On 4 March 2022 she appeared in an episode of EastEnders.
