Denise O'Donoghue,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(born 13 April 1955, in

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

television production company executive.

Early life

She attended the Catholic St Dominic's Convent Grammar School in north-west London (became

St Dominic's Sixth Form College St Dominic's Sixth Form College is a selective Roman Catholic sixth form college on Harrow on the Hill, England founded in 1878, originally founded as a boarding school. The college was opened and initiated by Cardinal Hume. The college was awa ...

in 1979). She graduated in 1979 with a BA in Politics from

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

Career

With

Rory McGrath Patrick Rory McGrath (born 17 March 1956) is a British comedian, television personality, and writer. He came to prominence in the comedy show '' Who Dares Wins'' and was a regular panellist on the game show '' They Think It's All Over'' for ma ...

and

Jimmy Mulville James Thomas Mulville (born 5 January 1955) is an English comedian, comedy writer, producer and television presenter. He is best known for co-founding (in 1986) the British independent television production company Hat Trick Productions with D ...

, she co-founded the independent British TV production company

Hat Trick Productions Hat Trick Productions Limited is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London. The company's logo is depicted as a rabbit pulling a man out of a hat inste ...

in 1986. As a

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acce ...

, O'Donoghue has worked on shows such as the original British version of ''

Whose Line is it Anyway? ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' is a short-form improvisational comedy show created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson. The three major versions of the show are the original 1988 British radio programme (from which all subsequent versions are ada ...

'', and ''

Have I Got News for You ''Have I Got News for You'' (''HIGNFY'') is a British television panel show, produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC, which premiered on 28 September 1990. The programme focuses on two teams, one usually captained by Ian Hislop and one ...

''. McGrath left the company in 1992. In 2003, O'Donoghue and Mulville, as the remaining co-founders of Hat Trick, were listed in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' as two of the 50 funniest people in Britain.

Personal life

O'Donoghue married Mulville in 1987. They divorced in the mid-1990s but continued to work together. In 2006, she married Michael Holland, an oil shipping businessman, whose wife, Jane Attenborough (daughter of

Richard Attenborough Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, film director, and Film producer, producer. Attenborough was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Acade ...

), their daughter Lucy, and his mother, Jane Holland, drowned in the tsunami in December 2004. He founded the charity Oil Aid. She was appointed an

for services to television in the

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

list of 1999.Honours list
from the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Notes

1955 births Living people Alumni of the University of York British television comedy English women television producers Television producers from London Hat Trick Productions Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Wembley {{UK-tv-bio-stub