Miranda Sawyer

Last updated

Miranda Sawyer
Miranda Sawyer (42218645852).jpg
Sawyer at the 2018 British Podcast Awards
Born
Miranda Caroline Sawyer

(1967-01-07) 7 January 1967 (age 57) [1]
Bristol, England [1]
Education Cheadle Hulme School
Alma mater University of Oxford (BA)
Occupation Journalist
Employers
Spouse
(m. 2007)
[1]
Children2
Website mirandasawyer.com

Miranda Caroline Sawyer (born 7 January 1967) [1] is an English author, journalist and broadcaster. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Education and early life

Sawyer was born in Bristol [1] and grew up in Wilmslow, Cheshire with her brother Toby, who is an actor [6] . Sawyer was educated at Cheadle Hulme School, [7] a private school in Stockport, and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford where she was an undergraduate student of Pembroke College, Oxford. [1]

Career

Sawyer moved to London in 1988 to begin a career as a journalist with the magazine Smash Hits . In 1993, she became the youngest winner of the Periodical Publishers Association Magazine Writer of the Year award for her work on Select magazine. She wrote columns for Time Out (1993–96) and the Daily Mirror (2000–2003), and was a frequent contributor to Mixmag and The Face during the 1990s.

As of August 2021, Sawyer is a feature writer for The Guardian and The Observer and serves as a radio critic. [8] Her work has been published in GQ , Vogue and The Guardian and she is a regular arts critic in print, on television and on radio. She served as a member of the judging panel for the 2007 Turner Prize and the panel that awarded Liverpool its European Capital of Culture status in 2008.

In 2004, Sawyer wrote, researched and presented an hour-long documentary for Channel 4 about the age of consent, Writing in The Guardian in 2003 an article entitled sex is not just for grown-ups she argued for the age of consent to be reduced to 12. [9] [10] In 2007, she presented a highly personal documentary for More4 on abortion rights in the US, A Matter of Life and Death, as part of its Travels with My Camera strand. [11]

Sawyer interrogated Russell Brand for The Guardian in the aftermath of the Russell Brand Show prank calls row. [12]

She has been an occasional guest on the UK arts programme Newsnight Review and The Culture Show on BBC Two, and also BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music's Radcliffe and Maconie Show . She also took part in a celebrity edition of BBC Two's afternoon quiz show The Weakest Link .

Her first book Park and Ride, a travel book on the Great British suburbs, was published by Little, Brown and Company in 1999. [13] Her second book Out of Time on the midlife crisis was published by HarperCollins in 2016. [14]

Personal life

Sawyer married the Belfast-born comedian and actor Michael Smiley in 2007. [1] The couple have two children. [15] In 2014, she appeared in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern as herself. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Widdecombe</span> British politician and media personality (born 1947)

Ann Noreen Widdecombe is a British politician and television personality. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald, and the former Maidstone constituency, from 1987 to 2010 and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2019 to 2020. Originally a member of the Conservative Party, she was a member of the Brexit Party from 2019 until it was renamed Reform UK in 2021; she rejoined Reform UK in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Humphrys</span> Welsh broadcaster, journalist and author (born 1943)

Desmond John Humphrys is a Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter of the Nine O'Clock News, the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until 2019 he presented on the BBC Radio 4 breakfast programme Today. He was the host of the BBC Two television quiz show Mastermind from 2003 to 2021, for a total of 735 episodes. Humphrys now presents a regular Sunday afternoon show on Classic FM, where he also sometimes fills in on the weekday More Music Breakfast show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Collins (broadcaster)</span> English writer and broadcaster

Andrew Collins is an English writer and broadcaster. He is the creator and writer of the Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky. His TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out. Collins has also worked as a music, television and film critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fi Glover</span> British journalist and presenter (born 1969)

Fiona Susannah Grace "Fi" Glover is a British journalist and presenter who currently hosts a two hour show for Times Radio and the Off Air podcast, for The Times. Before joining The Times in October 2022, Glover worked for the BBC for almost thirty years, most recently presenting the Fortunately podcast, with Jane Garvey, The Listening Project for BBC Radio 4 and My Perfect Country for the BBC World Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Brand</span> English comedian, actor, and podcaster (born 1975)

Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, presenter, activist, and campaigner. He established himself as a standup comedian and radio host before becoming a film actor. After beginning his career as a comedian and later becoming an MTV presenter in the UK, in 2004 Brand gained a role as the host of the television show Big Brother's Big Mouth, a Big Brother spin-off. He had his first major film role in British comedy St Trinian's (2007) before starring in the Hollywood comedies Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Get Him to the Greek (2010), Arthur (2011), and Rock of Ages (2012). He has released several stand-up specials including Scandalous (2009), Messiah Complex (2013), and Brandemic (2023). He hosted his own radio show The Russell Brand Show and also hosts the podcasts Stay Free with Russell Brand and Under the Skin with Russell Brand. He has received three British Comedy Awards and a nomination for a BAFTA Award. Over the course of his career, Brand has been the subject of frequent media coverage for issues such as his promiscuity, drug use, political views, provocative behaviour at various award ceremonies, his dismissal from MTV, and his resignation from the BBC amid a prank call controversy.

Zoe Abigail Williams is a Welsh columnist, journalist, and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Maitlis</span> British journalist

Emily Maitlis is a British journalist and former newsreader for the BBC. She was the lead anchor of the BBC Two news and current affairs programme Newsnight until the end of 2021, and is currently a presenter of the daily podcast The News Agents on LBC Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Davis</span> British economist, journalist and presenter

Evan Harold Davis is a presenter for the BBC, and former economist. He has presented Dragons' Den since 2005, and PM since 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoff Lloyd</span> English radio & TV host

Geoff Barron Lloyd is an English radio presenter, television host, podcast host and writer, best known for his talk radio and music shows. He is married to comedian Sara Barron and hosts the Firecrotch & Normcore podcast with her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Parkinson</span> British actress (born 1977/1978)

Katherine Parkinson is an English actress and comedian. She appeared in Channel 4's The IT Crowd comedy series as Jen Barber, for which she received a British Comedy Best TV Actress Award in 2009 and 2014, and was nominated twice for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, winning in 2014. Parkinson studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and has appeared on stage in the plays The Seagull (2007), Cock (2009), and Home, I'm Darling (2018), for which she was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Rhys Thomas is a British director, producer, actor, comedian and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsty Lang</span> British journalist and broadcaster

Kirsty Lang is a British journalist and broadcaster who works for BBC Radio and Television. Earlier in her career, she was on the staff of The Sunday Times and Channel 4 News, working as a presenter and reporter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon Horgan</span> Irish actress, writer, director, producer, and comedian (born 1970)

Sharon Lorencia Horgan is an Irish actress, writer, director, producer, and comedian. She is best known for creating and starring in the comedy series Pulling (2006–2009), Catastrophe (2015–2019), and Bad Sisters (2022–present). She also created the comedy series Divorce (2016–2019), Motherland (2016–2022), and Shining Vale (2022–2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Smiley</span> Northern Irish comedian and actor (born 1963)

Michael Smiley is a Northern Irish comedian and actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films Kill List (2011) and The Lobster (2015). He has also made appearances in British television series such as Luther, Utopia, Black Mirror and Doctor Who.

Katherine Jakeways is a British comedian, actor and writer. She has appeared in numerous television, radio and theatrical productions.

Kitty Empire is the pen name of a British writer and music critic, currently writing for The Observer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olly Mann</span>

Olly Mann is a British podcaster, broadcaster and BBC presenter. He is best known as the presenter of the weekend evening show on LBC and for his work with longtime collaborator Helen Zaltzman with whom he presented the award-winning podcast Answer Me This!.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Zaltzman</span> English podcaster, broadcaster and writer

Helen Zaltzman is an English podcaster, broadcaster and writer. She produces the linguistics podcast The Allusionist, the entertainment podcast Answer Me This!, and the Veronica Mars recap podcast Veronica Mars Investigations.

The Brian Pern documentaries are a British comedy spoof-documentary series about a fictional ageing rock star, Brian Pern, the former frontman of the 1970s progressive rock group Thotch. The series is written by Rhys Thomas and Simon Day, and stars Day as Pern, with Michael Kitchen, Paul Whitehouse and Nigel Havers in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aimee Lou Wood</span> English actress

Aimee Lou Wood is an English actress. After early stage roles in Mary Stuart (2016–2017) and People, Places and Things (2017), Wood made her screen debut on the Netflix series Sex Education (2019–2023), which won her a British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance from two nominations. Her films include The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021) and Living (2022). On stage, she appeared in the likes of Uncle Vanya (2020) and Cabaret (2023).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Anon (2010). "Sawyer, Miranda Caroline" . Who's Who (online Oxford University Press  ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U251619.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Miranda Sawyer at The Observer
  3. Miranda Sawyer at IMDb
  4. Sound and Vision (BBC Radio 6 Music)
  5. "Miranda Sawyer Newsnight presenter profile". BBC . 24 May 2002. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  6. "Toby Sawyer". IMDB. 12 May 2016.
  7. "Students Given Expert Creative Career Advice". Cheadle Hulme School. 12 May 2016.[ dead link ]
  8. Sawyer, Miranda (2021). "Billie Eilish Interview: To always try to look good is such a loss of joy and freedom". The Guardian .
  9. Sawyer, Miranda (2 November 2003). "Sex is not just for grown-ups". The Observer via www.theguardian.com.
  10. Sex Before 16: How the Law Is Failing
  11. Moran, Caitlin (13 April 2007). "Abortion: why it's the ultimate motherly act". The Times. ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  12. "Brand on the run". TheGuardian.com . 9 November 2008.
  13. Sawyer, Miranda (1999). Park and Ride. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN   0316645753.
  14. Sawyer, Miranda (2016). Out of Time: midlife, if you still think you're young. HarperCollins Publishers Australia. ISBN   978-0007521074. OCLC   1023233653.
  15. Carpenter, Louise (26 June 2016). "Miranda Sawyer: How I banished my mid-life blues and learned to live in the present". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  16. "Brian Pern The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, Episode 3 - Part Three: Death of Rock". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 27 September 2019.