Desiree Lea Burch (born 26 January 1979) is an American comedian, actress, television presenter, and voice actress. Originally from

Diamond Bar, California Diamond Bar is a city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2010 census it had a population of 55,544, and in 2019 the population was estimated to be 55,720. It is named after the "diamond over a bar" branding iron re ...

, Burch has also lived in New York, Streatham,

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

and Peckham, having moved to London to live with her boyfriend in 2014. She won the Funny Women title in 2015 having completed an arduous series of gigs around the UK, she followed up this success with five-star reviews and a Fringe First Award for her one-woman, self written show, ''Tar Baby'' at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Early life and education

Burch was born in

and attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

where she earned a bachelor's degree majoring in

Theatre Studies Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychobiological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also e ...

. After university, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

where she became a founding member of the New York

Neo-Futurists The Neo-Futurists are an experimental theater troupe founded by Greg Allen in 1988, based on an aesthetics of honesty, speed and brevity. Neo-Futurists in theatre were inspired by the Italian Futurist movement from the early 20th century. Origin ...

, and performed regularly as a stand-up comedian and actress on the New York comedy circuit. In 2014 she moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where she achieved wider acclaim in television following her win in the annual Funny Women competition in the following year, and Fringe First Award for her self written, one-woman show, ''Tar Baby''. She later became the founding Artistic Director of Degenerate Fox Theatre.

Career

Burch has appeared on '' Live at the Apollo'', '' Have I Got News for You'', '' QI'', ''

The Mash Report ''Late Night Mash'' is a British satirical comedy broadcast on Dave, as a continuation of ''The Mash Report'' on BBC Two. It is hosted by Rachel Parris, formerly by Nish Kumar, and features an array of comedians satirising the week's news. Fi ...

'', '' The Russell Howard Hour'', '' The Fake News Show'', ''

Chris Ramsey's Stand Up Central ''Rob Delaney's Stand Up Central'' (formerly known as ''Russell Howard's Stand Up Central'' and ''Chris Ramsey's Stand Up Central'') is a British stand-up comedy television show. It started broadcasting on Comedy Central on 29 April 2015, and ran ...

'', ''

Frankie Boyle's New World Order ''Frankie Boyle's New World Order'' is a British comedy television programme created, written and presented by Frankie Boyle. Premiering in 2017 on BBC Two, it followed his BBC iPlayer-exclusive "Autopsy" shows. After a few minutes of stand-up, h ...

'', ''

Mock the Week ''Mock the Week'' is a British topical satirical celebrity panel show, created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson. It was produced by Angst Productions for BBC Two, and was broadcast from 5 June 2005 to 4 November 2022. The programme was present ...

'', ''American Autopsy'' and ''

Richard Osman's House of Games ''Richard Osman's House of Games'' is a British quiz show produced by Banijay (owners of Endemol Shine UK), a branch of Remarkable Television for the BBC. The show is hosted by Richard Osman. It is played on a weekly basis, with four "celebri ...

''. She also plays Pamela Winchell, the former Mayor of Night Vale and current Head of Emergency Press Conferences, in ''

Welcome to Night Vale ''Welcome to Night Vale'' is a podcast presented as a radio show for the fictional town of Night Vale, reporting on the strange events that occur within it. The series was created in 2012 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Published by Night Val ...

''. In 2021, Desiree Burch was set to co-star with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Kartoon Channel series Superhero Kindergarten. Later that same year, she was in the Netflix movie A Castle for Christmas starring Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes. Burch hosts '' Flinch'', a physical game show on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

, alongside Seann Walsh, and Lloyd Griffith, which debuted in May 2019. ''Desiree's Coming Early'' was a 31-date UK tour in October and November 2019 with support from comedian

Ingrid Dahle Ingrid Elise Dahle is a UK-based Norwegian comedian and actress. Early life Dahle was born in Stavanger Norway, and grew up in Hommersåk. Comedy career In 2012 she won the Brighton Comedy Festival inaugural 'Squawker Award', and thus perfor ...

. In 2020, she became the narrator for

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

dating show Dating game shows are game shows that incorporates a variety of matchmaking systems and services in the form of a game with clear rules. Human matchmaking is involved only in selecting the game's contestants, who are usually selected more for the ...

'' Too Hot to Handle''. In May 2020 Burch appeared as a contestant in

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

References

External links