Olivia Lee is a British comedian, actress and writer.

Early life

Lee is from a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. She studied acting at the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a ...

Career

Lee landed a presenting job alongside

Simon Amstell Simon Marc Amstell (born 29 November 1979) is a British comedian, writer and director. He wrote and directed the films '' Carnage'' (2017) and ''Benjamin'' (2018). His work on television has included presenting '' Popworld'' and '' Never Mind th ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

's ''T4''. She later appeared on comedy show ''Balls of Steel'', where she pulled pranks such as interviewing celebrities with a penis-shaped microphone. She was later given her own show on Channel 4, ''Naughty Bits'', and performed hidden camera pranks on ''

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014. The fourth incarnation of the ...

''. Lee appeared in an episode of ''

The Basil Brush Show ''The Basil Brush Show'' is a British children's television sitcom series, starring the glove puppet fox Basil Brush. It was produced for six series by The Foundation, airing on CBBC from 27 September 2002 to 25 December 2007. The show is a s ...

'' in 2004. In 2006, she was interviewed and featured in a photoshoot for ''

FHM ''FHM'' (For Him Magazine) is a British multinational men's lifestyle magazine that was published in several countries. Its master edition contained features such as the ''FHM'' 100 Sexiest Women in the World, which has featured models, actres ...

''. In March 2009, she appeared as a guest on internet talk show ''

Tom Green's House Tonight ''Tom Green's House Tonight'' (formerly known as ''Tom Green Live!'') is a talk show hosted by Tom Green. In addition to its primary Internet broadcast on ''TomGreen.com'', the show has been syndicated on television stations throughout North Am ...

''. ''

Dirty Sexy Funny ''Dirty Sexy Funny'' is a British television comedy series which first aired in March 2010 on the Comedy Central channel. It stars Olivia Lee. In the show, Lee takes on an array of personas which include a woman with obsessive-compulsive disorde ...

'', a hidden camera show, which originally piloted on Channel 4 in 2008, began airing on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

in March 2010 and ran for two season. Lee was the host of the

Fox Reality Channel Fox Reality Channel was an American pay television channel. It was launched on May 24, 2005, and was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group. It featured many shows that were originally on the Fox network (or produced by Fox). The channel also featu ...

game show ''Battle of the Bods'' before Fox Reality's dissolution ended its run. In January 2012, it was announced that Lee would join the cast of ''

Balls of Steel Australia ''Balls of Steel Australia'' is an Australian reality comedy television series (based upon the UK series of the same name) which is hosted by The Chaser's Craig Reucassel. The show revolves around comedians who appear and present individual ski ...

'' for its second series. Her act in the show is "Prank TV Oz", in which she pranks various members of the public while taking on different personas in a similar manner to her hidden camera show ''

''. Lee appeared on a celebrity edition of Channel 4 game show ''

The Bank Job ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' for charity. The USA soon came calling and Olivia was invited to regularly appear on NBC’s The Tonight Show With Jay Leno where she wrote and provided her own brand of outrageous comedy for the show. That led to truTV giving Olivia her own comedy pilot ‘The Olivia Lee Show’ – which Ben Stiller produced with his company Red Hour. She’s just finished filming ‘Who's The Daddy’ which will be released later this year, and also just finished filming her own pilot ‘Make Me A Misogynist’ which she created and wrote for C4. You can also catch her in the latest series of ‘In The Long Run’ on SKY. Last year she launched her first album with Universal records; ‘Mindful Mum; How Not To Lose Your Total Fucking Shit’ a unique spin on mindfulness, this proved to be a huge hit so Olivia turned it into a live show ‘Olivia Lee; Losing Her Total Fucking Shit’ which pays homage to female anger, she toured this across London and a national tour of this is planned for 2021. An accomplished writer Olivia also has many scripted sit-com / comedy drama projects in development.

Personal life

Lee is married to

Dan Renton Skinner Daniel Renton Skinner (born 25 January 1973) is an English actor and comedy writer, working in stage, film and television. Skinner often performs as the character Angelos Epithemiou and is also one half of the Brian and Roger podcast. Early li ...

, a.k.a. Angelos Epithemiou, and has a child with him. They met when they both starred on a celebrity version of '' Come Dine with Me''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Olivia 20th-century births Living people English Jews English women comedians Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)