Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born 22 September 1969) is an English actress, broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer. Originally coming to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in Mel and Sue, she progressed into radio and television presenting, notably of The Great British Bake Off (2010–2016), Insert Name Here (2016–2019) and Just a Minute (since 2021) on BBC Radio 4.
Perkins was born on 22 September 1969 in Croydon, London, where she grew up with her two younger siblings, and her parents. Her father worked for a local car dealership and her mother was employed as a secretary.[2] She was educated at Croham Hurst School, a nearby independent school for girls in South Croydon, at the same time as television presenter Susanna Reid.[3]
Perkins and creative partner Mel Giedroyc took their first steps into television under the name Mel and Sue. The duo began to gain success and were short-listed for the Daily Express Best Newcomers award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993. After a few years writing for French & Saunders (and occasionally appearing on their BBC series), they co-hosted a lunchtime show on Channel 4 entitled Light Lunch, and an early evening version, Late Lunch, which ran from March 1997 to February 1998.
In January 2015, Giedroyc and Perkins began hosting their own daytime chat show on ITV called Mel and Sue.[7][8] In August 2015, it was announced that Mel and Sue had been cancelled by ITV.[9] On 23 July 2017, it was confirmed that they would host a new version of The Generation Game for BBC One.[10]
She provided the voice for Messenger Bird in Dinotopia, produced for Hallmark Entertainment.[12]
In 2003, Perkins joined Channel 4 morning television programme RI:SE.[13] In the same year, Perkins also provided additional written material for BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
In April 2007, she participated in the television series, Edwardian Supersize Me for the BBC. She was joined by food critic Giles Coren. The series focused on spending a week eating the equivalent of a wealthy Edwardian couple's food, whilst wearing period clothing.
Following the series, Perkins and Coren were commissioned to present a new series called, The Supersizers Go.... The premise of "Edwardian Supersize Me" was replicated and focused on other periods throughout history.
In the first episode, they survived for a week on Second World War rations. It was re-commissioned for a second episode, Perkins and Coren covered the English Restoration period. The third episode covered the Victorian period, the fourth the 1970s, the fifth the Elizabethan period and the sixth the Regency period.
Perkins in 2008
In August and September 2008, Perkins appeared in the reality television series Maestro on BBC Two. During the series, a group of eight celebrities attempted (until eliminated) to learn to conduct orchestral, choral and operatic music.[14] During the series, Perkins conducted three pieces, two of them with soprano soloist Lesley Garrett.[15] Perkins won the series.[16] In 2008, Perkins narrated the series ....And Proud on Virgin 1.
Perkins appeared in a second "Supersizers" series called The Supersizers Eat... with Giles Coren which aired on BBC Two in June and July 2009.[17] In September and October 2009 she hosted the Channel 4 panel game The Big Food Fight.
She then gave a televised lecture for the Royal Television Society. Entitled "Wit's End? British Comedy at the Crossroads", the lecture focused on the state of British comedy. The presentation was broadcast on BBC Two.[18]
In March 2010, Perkins appeared in a three part mini-series on BBC Two, A Band for Britain, in which she attempted to revive the fortunes of the Dinnington Colliery Band.[19][20]
In 2010, Perkins and Coren presented Giles and Sue Live the Good Life, a celebration of the 1970s BBC series The Good Life, where they were challenged to live a self-sufficient lifestyle.[21]
Later that year, Perkins was joined by Mel Giedroyc to present The Great British Bake Off,[22] a cookery competition with each episode looking at a different aspect of baking. They co-hosted the series for seven seasons. In September 2016, Love Productions announced that a three-year deal had been agreed to broadcast the show on Channel 4 instead of the BBC from 2017.[23] Perkins and Giedroyc announced that they would not be continuing with Bake Off on its new network.[24]Mary Berry announced she was also leaving Bake Off[25] on the same day that fellow-judge Paul Hollywood separately announced he would be staying with the show.[26]
Perkins narrated the 2011 game show Don't Scare the Hare. In October 2011, she presented a series on BBC Two called All Roads Lead Home. It featured Perkins learning how to use nature as a navigation tool. She was joined on the series by Alison Steadman and Stephen Mangan.[27]
On 30 December 2011, she presented and performed Mrs Dickens's Family Christmas, a 60-minute documentary for BBC Two that examined the marriage of Charles Dickens through the eyes of his wife, Catherine.
In 2011, Perkins featured in the BBC travel adventure show World's Most Dangerous Roads: Alaska. She and Charley Boorman, her companion for the trip, drove the Dalton Highway.[29] She then appeared with Liza Tarbuck in Series 2 Episode 2 of World's Most Dangerous Roads: Ho Chi Minh Trail, shown in 2012, driving in Vietnam and Laos.[30] In November 2014 she returned to South-East Asia, travelling from the Mekong delta up to Tibet in The Mekong River with Sue Perkins, produced by Indus Films for the BBC. In September 2015, she presented a one-off show Kolkata with Sue Perkins on BBC One.
On 26 February 2013, the first episode of Perkins's self-penned sitcom, Heading Out, was broadcast.[31] It was produced by Red Production Company and Square Peg TV. Perkins also portrayed the show's lead, Sara.[32]
From 4 August 2014, she presented Cooks' Questions on More4.[33]
Beginning in September 2023, Perkins appeared as a contestant on the 16th series of Taskmaster.[38] She finished fourth.
Conducting
Following her success in Maestro in 2008, Perkins guest-conducted the London Gay Symphony Orchestra on 11 October 2009, at St Anne's Church Garden in Soho. She conducted two pieces, the Simpsons Theme by Danny Elfman, and the William Tell Overture by Rossini, the latter for the first time.[39][40]
Perkins again conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at the first Comedy Prom at the Royal Albert Hall during the 2011 Prom season.[43]
Perkins is associate conductor for the Orion Orchestra, a London-based orchestra consisting of students and graduates of the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama.[citation needed]
Radio
Perkins is a panel member on Radio 4's The News Quiz and has made regular appearances on Radio 2's It's Been a Bad Week. She was also a frequent panellist on another popular Radio 4 show, Just a Minute: in the 2012 television version, she appeared in four out of the 10 episodes (more than any other panellist except Paul Merton, who appeared in all 10) and won on all four occasions.[44] After original Just a Minute host Nicholas Parsons died in Aylesbury on 28 January 2020, Perkins was part of the roster of guest hosts for the series, and in July 2021, she was announced as the new permanent host, starting with the 87th series.[45]
She was the chair of Radio 4's The 99p Challenge until the show finished in 2004. Perkins appeared every day in the last half-hour of Mark Radcliffe's afternoon radio show on Radio 2, when he sat in for Steve Wright.
Between 2006 and 2007, Perkins was a panellist on a Radio 4 show, The Personality Test, a quiz show about the host, presented by a different host each week. Past hosts include Gyles Brandreth and Rick Wakeman, and other panellists include Robin Ince, Lucy Porter and Will Smith. She also provided the voiceovers at the start and end of each programme.
Perkins was also chair of the Radio 4 panel game Dilemma, in which four humorous guests discussed moral conundrums she provided for them. The first series ran for six episodes on Sunday evenings from 13 November to 18 December 2011. Another series of this programme ran in February 2013.
On 9 July 2017 Perkins was the guest celebrity on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.
In February 2020, she began presenting a 6.30 pm comedy series on BBC Radio 4 called Nature Table, taking a humorous look at the natural world, recorded at ZSL London Zoo.
Her memoir, Spectacles, was published in October 2015.[49] In October 2018, she released an autobiographical travel book East of Croydon: Blunderings Through India and South East Asia,[50] which was shortlisted in the 'Autobiography of the Year' category at the 2018 National Book Awards.[51]
Edinburgh Festival appearances
Perkins has performed two stand-up comedy solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: Spectacle Wearer of the Year 2006 in 2005, and The Disappointing Second Show in 2006.[52][53]
Personal life
In August 2012, Perkins appeared on Tatler's list of high-profile lesbians in London.[54][55] She was outed as a lesbian in 2002 by her ex-girlfriend Rhona Cameron during Cameron's appearance on ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here![56] Perkins has said that "being a lesbian is only about the 47th most interesting thing about me".[2]
In April 2015, Perkins was the victim of online harassment on Twitter after oddsmakers made her the favourite to fill the vacancy on the BBC's Top Gear programme left by the departure of Jeremy Clarkson, despite Perkins saying that rumours about her imminent appointment to the show were "fabricated".[2] She temporarily quit the social media site, but returned in August 2015.
In September 2015, Perkins revealed that she was diagnosed with prolactinoma, which is a benign growth on her pituitary gland. She had received the diagnosis eight years previously. The side effects prevent her from having children.[57][58]
Davina Lucy Pascale McCall is an English television presenter. She was the presenter of the reality show Big Brother during its run on Channel 4 between 2000 and 2010. She hosted Channel 4's Streetmate, The Million Pound Drop (2010–2015), Five Minutes to a Fortune (2013), and The Jump (2014–2017), as well as ITV's The Biggest Loser (2011–2012), Long Lost Family (2011–present), and This Time Next Year (2016–2019). McCall was also a regular co-presenter of the Comic Relief annual telethons from 2005 to 2015.
The News Quiz is a British topical panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 1977. The show, created by John Lloyd from an idea by Nicholas Parsons, has seen several hosts, including Barry Norman, Barry Took, Simon Hoggart, Sandi Toksvig, and Miles Jupp. Andy Zaltzman was announced as the permanent host after series 103. The show involves four panellists, often comedians or journalists, who answer questions about events of the previous week, often leading to humorous and satirical exchanges. The show was adapted for television in 1981 and has also inspired other shows.
Sandra Birgitte Toksvig is a Danish-British broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the Women's Equality Party in 2015. She has written plays, novels and books for children. In 1994, she came out as a lesbian.
Melanie Clare Sophie Giedroyc is an English actress, comedian and television presenter.
Rhona Cameron is a Scottish comedian, writer and TV presenter. She rose to prominence via the stand-up comedy circuit, and was a regular on British television in the 1990s.
Giles Robin Patrick Coren is a British columnist, food writer, and television and radio presenter. He has been a restaurant critic for The Times newspaper since 2002, and was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2005.
Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, known collectively as Mel and Sue, are an English comedy double act. They are known for hosting the BAFTA Award-winning BBC One cookery series The Great British Bake Off. Previously, they hosted the lunchtime chat shows Light Lunch and Late Lunch on Channel 4.
Elizabeth Emma Williams, known professionally as Emma Kennedy, is an English actress, lawyer, comedian, travel writer, television presenter and author.
Dame Mary Rosa Alleyne Hunnings is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter. After being encouraged in domestic science classes at school, she studied catering at college. She then moved to France at the age of 22 to study at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, before working in a number of cooking-related jobs.
Allegra Sarah Bazzett McEvedy MBE is an English chef, broadcaster and writer.
The Supersizers Go... and The Supersizers Eat... are two BBC television series about the history of food, mainly in Britain. Both series are presented by journalist and restaurant critic Giles Coren and broadcaster and comedian Sue Perkins.
Laura Whitmore is an Irish media personality and model based in London. She was a video jockey for MTV in 2008, and has since presented television shows, such as This Morning (2014), Survival of the Fittest (2018) and Love Island (2020–2022). In 2020, Whitmore became a team captain on the comedy panel show Celebrity Juice. In 2023, Whitmore hosted her first ITV1 chat show Laura Whitmore's Breakfast Show and released her own ITVX documentary series Laura Whitmore Investigates.
The Great British Bake Off is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, attempting to impress two judges with their baking skills. One contestant is eliminated in each round, and the winner is selected from the three contestants who reach the final.
Paul John Hollywood is an English celebrity chef and television personality, widely known as a judge on The Great British Bake Off since 2010.
Heading Out is a British sitcom created by and starring comedian Sue Perkins. It was first broadcast on BBC Two on 26 February 2013. Heading Out tells the story of Sara, a veterinarian who is given an ultimatum by her friends to tell her parents that she is gay. Perkins had the idea for the sitcom for around ten years, before she developed the confidence to write it. Heading Out was commissioned for a full series in April 2012 and production began in September that year. The show was not commissioned for a second series.
The fifth series of The Great British Bake Off first aired on 6 August 2014, with twelve contestants. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins presented the show and Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood returned as judges. Twelve contestants competed in this series, and the competition was held in Welford Park in Berkshire. The series was won by Nancy Birtwhistle, with Luis Troyano and Richard Burr finishing as runners-up.
Mel & Sue is a British chat show presented by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. The series was broadcast live on ITV between 12 January 2015 and 20 February 2015. On 11 August 2015, ITV announced that Mel & Sue had been cancelled after one series.
The seventh series of The Great British Bake Off aired from 24 August 2016, with twelve contestants competing to be crowned the series 7 winner.
Louise Samantha Sanders is an English stand-up comedian, writer and actress. Since beginning her career in comedy, she has appeared regularly on panel shows, performed on Live at the Apollo and won the eighth series of Taskmaster in 2019. Since 2021, she has appeared as Mel Giedroyc's sidekick on the Dave comedy series Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable and was a contestant on the sixteenth series of Dancing on Ice in 2024.
Olga Alfredovna Koch is a Russian-British stand-up comedian, writer, and actress.
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