Catherine Tate

Non-comedy TV and film credits may be found here:
Catherine Tate on IMDb

Born

Friday 5th December 1969 (54 years-old)

Birth name

Catherine Ford

Nationality

English

Catherine Tate, born Catherine Ford, is an English comedian, actress, and writer, best known for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show, which was nominated for four BAFTAs including Best Comedy Performance.

Born in Bloomsbury, London, in 1969, she was known at school as something of a rebel, with a keen sense of humour. Thus it was no surprise that one of her most famous sketch-show characters, Lauren, should have been at least partially based on her former self. After taking A-Levels in Salesian College, Battersea, she left school without sitting her A Levels, and finally studied art and drama at The Central School of Speech and Drama having tried for four years to gain entry.

Early work involved appearances in Casualty and The Bill, and minor roles in The Harry Hill Show. In 1998, she wrote and starred in Barking, a late-night sketch show broadcast on Channel 4 that featured the then unknown comedy actors Mackenzie Crook, David Walliams, and Peter Kay, with whom she had formerly appeared on That Peter Kay Thing.

She also played the part of Kate in the unaired pilot of sitcom Not Going Out, featuring Lee Mack, with whom she collaborated on a range of sketch shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. She was then offered a part in Wild West, alongside Dawn French, an idol of hers, who would comment that "Catherine Tate is far too talented and she must be destroyed".

This led the BBC to take, by her own admission, something of a gamble in offering the then relative unknown her own sketch show, The Catherine Tate Show. However, it soon proved a huge success, with many of her characters - disaffected teenager Lauren, foul-mouthed grandma Joanne 'Nan' Taylor - passing into popular folklore, with a gigantic following. Lauren's catchphrases 'Am I bovered?' and 'Are you disrespecting my family?' remain famous to this day. She won a British Comedy Award for best newcomer in 2004, was nominated for an International Emmy Award, and 7 BAFTA awards. She was a guest star at the 77th Royal Variety Performance and appeared in the guise of Lauren Cooper. During the sketch, Tate looked up and asked the queen, 'Is one bovvered? Is one's face bovvered?', and her co-star Niky Wardley, in character as Liese, remarked, 'That old man sitting next to her has fallen asleep'.

A versatile actor, Tate has appeared in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens's Bleak House, as well as featuring in Doctor Who. Moreover, she appeared in the 2006 film comedies Starter For Ten, Sixty Six, and Scenes Of A Sexual Nature. Latterly she starred as Nellie Bertram in the US version of The Office and provided the voice of Magica de Spell in Disney's DuckTales.

BAFTA Television Awards 2015

Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme (Nominee)

BAFTA Television Awards 2011

Best Comedy (Nominee)

National Television Awards, The 2008

Outstanding Drama Performance (Nominee)

BAFTA Television Awards 2007

Best Comedy (Nominee)

British Comedy Awards 2007

Best TV Comedy Actress (Nominee)

RTS Awards 2007

Comedy Performance (Nominee)

Loaded LAFTAs 2007

Funniest Woman (Nominee)

BAFTA Television Awards 2006

Best Comedy Performance (Nominee)

British Comedy Awards 2006

Best TV Comedy Actress (Winner)

RTS Awards 2006

Comedy Performance (Winner)

BAFTA Television Awards 2005

Best Comedy (Nominee)

BAFTA Television Craft Awards 2005

New Writer (Nominee)

International Emmy Awards 2005

Best Actress (Nominee)

RTS Awards 2005

Network Newcomer - On Screen (Winner)

British Comedy Awards 2004

Best TV Comedy Actress (Nominee)
Best Comedy Breakthrough Artist (Winner)

Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2000

Best Comedy Show (Nominee)

NATYS: New Acts of the Year Show 1998

Top of the Bill (Nominee)