Sophie Willan

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Biography

Sophie Willan (born on 21 October 1987) is a BAFTA winning English actress, narrator, writer, and comedian.

She began her arts career in theatre, founding the feminist theatre/cabaret group Eggs Collective. Her stand-up takes inspiration from her unusual life experiences, which included growing up in the care system, and working as an escort.

In 2015, she won the Magners New Comedian of the Year award. She has been nominated as a Chortle Best Newcomer, was honoured on the BBC New Talent Hot List, and became the first recipient of the BBC’s Caroline Aherne Comedy Bursary. She was also a South Bank Sky Arts Award Best Breakthrough Nominee in 2018.

In 2016, she took her debut stand-up show On Record (based on her experiences of growing up in and out of the care system) to the Edinburgh Festival. This was followed by a nationwide tour in 2017, including 10 dates at London's Soho Theatre, and a commission to adapt the show into a BBC Radio 4 series.

Her second show, Branded, was an exploration of the labels applied to her by other people, and also addressed her past as a sex worker. She performed the show at the Edinburgh Festival 2017, receiving a Herald Angel Award and a nomination for Best Show.

Since 2018, she has been the narrator of Channel 4’s The Circle.

She portrayed Carol in the CBBC sketch show Class Dismissed, and played roles in Click & Collect (2018) and Still Open All Hours (2018-2019).

In 2020, her sitcom Alma's Not Normal was commissioned for a full series by BBC Two, to be released in 2021, following the success of the pilot. She won a Television Craft Award for Best Writer: Comedy for the pilot of the show, and was awarded the Best Female Comedy Performance at the British Academy Television Awards in 2022, for her performance in the series (which was also nominated for Best Scripted Comedy).

In 2023, she appeared as Maeve in the second series of the BBC One prison drama Time.

She has also appeared on Live from The Comedy Store, and The Last Leg Correspondents, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (2017), Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable (2022), The Ranganation (2022), and Would I Lie to You? (2022).