 | This biographical article is written like a résumé .(April 2019) |
Jen Brister | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jennifer Helen Brister 9 February 1975 Kingston upon Thames, London, England |
| Alma mater | University of Middlesex |
| Occupations |
|
Jennifer Helen Brister (born 9 February 1975) is a British stand-up comedian, writer and actor from London. [1]
Brister was born in Kingston upon Thames, Greater London, in 1975 to an English father and a Spanish mother. She has three brothers. [2] Brister was raised as a Catholic [3] and went to all girls' Ursuline High School, Wimbledon. [4] She then went on to Richmond College. [5] Her Spanish-born mother is a frequent target of her comedy shows. [6] [7]
Brister studied drama at Middlesex University, London, where, in the mid-1990s, she took a course in stand-up comedy, the only one of its kind at the time in the UK. Other famous graduates include Alan Carr, Dan Renton Skinner of the Dutch Elm Conservatoire and Shooting Stars , and Clare Warde of the Runaway Lovers. Brister's first gig was at the end of her third year at university in 1996, [8] at the King's Head in Crouch End, London.
She has performed internationally including at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2011 and 2014, at the Adelaide Festival in 2011 and 2012, as well as numerous times at the Edinburgh Festival. She regularly performs at clubs around the UK including Banana Cabaret, The Comedy Store (London), the Glee Clubs, Frog & Bucket, and Up the Creek. She toured the UK for the first time in 2018 with her show Meaningless. Since 2022 she has been touring the UK again with her show The Optimist. [9]
Her comedy hero is Victoria Wood. [10]
In 2006, Brister appeared at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with her first show Me, My Mum and I. [11] In Time Out , March 2006, Jen stated "It's really an exploration of my relationship with my mum. It's an analysis, as well, of where I am at this point in my life. I'm 31. I'm single. I don't own a house. Or a car. I don't have kids. Or any solid financial security. At 31, my mother had three children and a fourth on the way. She was married and she had a mortgage." [12]
In 2007–2008, Brister worked for BBC Radio 6 Music as a stand-in presenter, and in 2008 she took a show to Edinburgh Fringe Festival called Reception with her comedy partner at the time, Clare Warde. In 2009, Brister appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe, again doing a stand-up show as well as appearing in a play called The One and The Many by Trevor Lock. In 2011, Brister took her second solo show British(ish) to Melbourne, Adelaide and Edinburgh festivals.
In 2012, Brister performed her third solo show Now and Then at the Adelaide and Edinburgh festivals, and in 2013, she performed a sell-out run at Soho Theatre, London. In 2014, Brister took her fourth show Wishful Thinking to the Free Fringe at Edinburgh, and performed it at Soho Theatre. In 2016, Brister performed her fifth show The Other One at the Camden Fringe comedy festival, and in 2017 she performed it at Soho Theatre.
In 2017, Brister performed at BBC Two's Live at The Apollo, aired on 14 December 2017. [13]
In 2018, Brister took her sixth show Meaningless to the Edinburgh festival, where she had a sell-out run. This was the first show she had toured around the UK.
She gave a TED talk at Brighton TEDx in 2018 titled "Changing the way we bring up our boys", addressing the cultural and gender norms taught to children. [14]
Brister supported Frankie Boyle on his 2018 tour [15] and was a panellist on Frankie Boyle's New World Order on BBC Two in 2019. [16] She was a panellist on BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz in September 2018 and May 2019. [17] She is a regular guest on podcasts like The Guilty Feminist , Global Pillage and Drunk Women Solving Crime. She also does her own podcast together with comedian Maureen Younger. [18]
Her 2019 Edinburgh show was called Under Privilege. [19]
In 2020 she was due to take her UK tour [20] of Under Privilege to the Machynlleth Comedy Festival at The Tabernacle, Machynlleth. [21] In May 2020 Brister appeared on the TV panel show Who Said That?. [22]
In November 2021, Brister was a panellist on the BBC show Mock the Week . In January 2022, Brister was a panellist on the BBC show QI .
Brister is also a writer and has contributed to Diva, g3, Standard Issue magazine and The Huffington Post. She has also written for BBC Scotland. [23]
Her first book, The Other Mother - A wickedly honest parenting tale for every kind of family, was published by Penguin in 2019. [24]
Brister's first role in a feature film was in the horror film Lair, directed by Adam Ethan Crow. [25]
Brister and her partner Chloe Martin have twin boys, born in September 2014. [26] They live in Brighton. [27]
Josie Isabel Long is an English comedian. She started performing as a stand-up at the age of 14 and won the BBC New Comedy Awards at 17.
Robin Ince is an English comedian, actor and writer. He is known for presenting the BBC radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage with physicist Brian Cox, creating Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People, co-creating The Cosmic Shambles Network, and his stand-up comedy career.
Lucy Donna Porter is an English actress, writer, presenter and comedian. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Brighton Festival and many clubs around Britain. She is also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel shows, including Quote... Unquote and The Personality Test.
Phil Kay is a Scottish stand-up comedian.
Joanna Neary is a British comedian, writer and actress. Her solo, character-based stage shows include Youth Club and Joanna Neary Is Not Feeling Herself, which received a Perrier Best Newcomer award nomination in 2004. She has also appeared in the TV shows Time Trumpet, Angelo's, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Skins, Dogface, Man Down and Ideal. Radio credits include acting as an ensemble member of the cast in the first series of the Count Arthur Strong Radio Show, as well as appearing in numerous series of the Radio 4 show Out to Lunch.
Sarah Jane Millican is an English comedian, writer and presenter. Millican won the comedy award for Best Newcomer at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In February 2013 she was listed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Radio 4's Woman's Hour, and in the same year she married fellow comedian Gary Delaney. Her first book, How to Be Champion, was published in 2017. Millican has performed on various tours, mainly across the United Kingdom, over the years.
Zoe Ann Lyons is a British comedian and TV presenter.
Sara Patricia Pascoe is an English actress, comedian, presenter and writer. She has appeared on television programmes including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Taskmaster for Channel 4 and QI for BBC Two.
Daniel Sloss is a Scottish comedian, actor, and writer.
Angela Barnes is an English stand-up comedian, mostly known for her appearances on Mock the Week.
Kate Smurthwaite is a British comedian and political activist. She has appeared on British television and radio as a pundit, offering opinion and comment on subjects ranging from politics to religion.
John Michael David Robins is an English stand-up comedian and radio presenter.
Luisa Omielan is a British comedian based in Birmingham.
Jane Postlethwaite is an queer English comedian, writer and actor. She is originally from Cumbria, England.
Rosie Luisa Jones is a British comedian, writer and actress. After starting her career as a writer on panel shows, she went on to appear as a guest on The Last Leg, 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, QI and Hypothetical. She attended the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo as a roving reporter for The Last Leg.
John-Luke Roberts is a British stand-up comedian, writer, actor and performer.
Gráinne Maguire is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer and podcaster.
Maisie Elizabeth Adam is an English stand-up comedian, writer, and actress.
Sophie Duker is a British stand-up comedian and writer.
Ingrid Elise Dahle is a UK-based Norwegian comedian and actress.
| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|