Penny Dwyer (born Penelope Rosemary Dwyer; 24 September 1953 – 4 September 2003) was a British comedy writer and performer, noted for being a member of the

Cambridge Footlights Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University. History Footlights' inaugural ...

revue ''

The Cellar Tapes The ''Cambridge Footlights Revue'' is an annual revue by the Footlights Club - a group of comedy writer-performers at the University of Cambridge. Three of the more notable revues are detailed below. 1963 revue "A Clump of Plinths" — "Ca ...

'' which won the inaugural Perrier Comedy Awards in 1981. The other performers in ''The Cellar Tapes'' were

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

Hugh Laurie James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in a ...

Emma Thompson Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress. Regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, she has received numerous accolades throughout her four-decade-long career, including two Academy Awards, two British A ...

Tony Slattery Tony Declan James Slattery (born 9 November 1959) is an English actor and comedian. He appeared on British television regularly from the mid-1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' His ...

and Paul Shearer.

Early life and education

Dwyer was educated at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Career

Dwyer worked as a writer and performer in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s; however, unlike her fellow Perrier winners, she chose not to pursue a full-time career in the entertainment business. Instead becoming a

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

, Dwyer had a major role in the construction of the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

Death

Dwyer died in Somerset in 2003 aged 49, following a long illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dwyer, Penny 1953 births 2003 deaths Actresses from Bristol Alumni of the University of Cambridge English women comedians British women engineers English metallurgists 20th-century English comedians 20th-century English women 20th-century English people