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Dawn French
Name: Dawn French
DOB: 11 October 1957
Birth Place: Holyhead, Wales
Claim to fame: Comedy goddess
Star Facts
- Dawn worked as a hotel cleaner before her rise to comedy stardom
- On TV, Dawn has snogged Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, George Clooney and Hugh Grant
- She has her own plus size clothing line, Sixteen47
- Dawn has one daughter, Billie
Biography
Comedy legend Dawn was born in Wales but, with a dad in the RAF, she moved from city to city while growing up. In 1977 she joined London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, where she met future double-act partner and Ab Fab star Jennifer Saunders.
At first they loathed each other, with Jennifer thinking Dawn was cocky and Dawn thinking Jennifer was stuck up. But once the two got talking a firm friendship was born, and they began performing at comedy clubs as The Menopause Sisters while wearing tampons in their ears.
Joining the legendary alternative comedy troupe The Comic Strip alongside Bottom stars Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, Dawn and Jennifer appeared on TV for the first time in Channel 4’s The Comic Strip Presents… in 1982. They were given their own BBC show, French and Saunders, in 1987. The sketch series ran for an amazing twenty years, taking the mick out of every celebrity under the sun and establishing the duo as the reigning queens of British comedy.
Now a national treasure, Dawn has starred in several TV hits, including period drama Lark Rise to Candleford and the much-loved Vicar of Dibley. She’s also branched out into film, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, theatre, with performances in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and she’s published a novel and an autobiography too.
Dawn was famously married to fellow comedian Lenny Henry in 1984, but after 25 years of marriage the couple sadly spit in 2010.