Rosie Jones (born 24 June 1990) is a British comedian, writer and actress. She has written for panel shows ''
Harry Hill's Alien Fun Capsule'', ''
Would I Lie to You?'', ''
The Last Leg'' and ''
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'',
and has appeared as a guest on ''The Last Leg'', ''
8 Out of 10 Cats'', ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'', ''
QI'' and ''
Hypothetical''.
Jones has performed stand-up comedy at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
, incorporating her
cerebral palsy into her comedic style; in 2018, she was featured on ''Edinburgh Nights''.
Jones has also appeared on other television shows, written an episode of ''
Sex Education'' and hosts the podcast ''Daddy Look at Me'' with Helen Bauer. She attended the
2020 Summer Paralympics
The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralym ...
in Tokyo as a roving reporter for ''The Last Leg''.
As an actress, she appeared in six episodes of ''
Casualty'' between 2021 and 2022. She is also the author of a children's book, ''The Amazing Edie Eckhart'', about an 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy.
Career
In 2011, following her graduation with a first-class degree from the
University of Huddersfield,
Jones was hired for a year as a junior researcher for
Objective Media Group as part of a disability scheme at
Channel 4. She was unemployed for a few years following this. In January 2015, Jones began a screenwriting class at the
National Film and Television School
The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is a film, television and games school established in 1971 and based at Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. It is featured in the 2021 ranking by ''The Hollywood Repor ...
.
Jones reached the final of the 2016
Funny Women
Funny Women is an online and in-person workshop community dedicated to the support of female comedians. It was founded by Lynne Parker in 2002 as a reaction to misogynistic comments from a comedy promoter. Funny Women helps women find their voice, ...
Awards.
She began writing for ''The Last Leg'' during their coverage of the
2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
.
Jones has also written for ''
Harry Hill's Alien Fun Capsule'', ''
Would I Lie to You?'' and ''
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''.
In 2017, Jones appeared on ''8 Out of 10 Cats''.
In 2018, Jones appeared in ''
Silent Witness
''Silent Witness'' is a British crime drama television series produced by the BBC, which focuses on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in 1996, the series was created by Nigel McC ...
''
and on ''The Last Leg''.
In 2019, Jones was a guest on ''
Hypothetical'' and ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'', and again on ''8 Out of 10 Cats'' and ''The Last Leg''.
She has also appeared on the podcast ''
The Guilty Feminist
''The Guilty Feminist'' is a feminist comedy podcast hosted by Deborah Frances-White. Created by Frances-White and Sofie Hagen in 2015, the podcast features guests on a panel to discuss topics on and related to feminism, and is recorded in front o ...
'', the Channel 4 online programme ''The Last Leg: The Correspondents'', the
BBC Three series "Things Not to Say",
BBC Radio 4's ''Fred at the Stand'' and BBC web series ''Period Dramas''.
In June 2019, Jones launched a new podcast alongside fellow comedian Helen Bauer entitled ''Daddy Look at Me''. The podcast features Bauer, Jones and a guest discussing their childhoods and what they did in order to get attention in their youth.
In 2020, Jones guest starred in an episode of the third series of the BBC drama ''
Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators''. and on BBC Radio 4's ''The News Quiz'', presented by Nish Kumar. She also appeared on an episode of ''Joe Lycett's Got Your Back''.
Alongside series creator
Laurie Nunn
Laurie Nunn (born May 1986) is an English screenwriter and playwright best known for creating the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Sex Education''.
Nunn was born in London, England, to British theatre director Trevor Nunn and Australian actress Sha ...
, Jones co-wrote episode four of the second season of the
Netflix comedy-drama ''
Sex Education'', released in January 2020.
Jones appeared as a panellist on BBC One's ''
Question Time'' on 12 November 2020.
In May 2021, Jones starred in her own Channel 4 series, ''
Trip Hazard: My Great British Adventure''. Filmed during the
Covid-19 pandemic, it features Jones visiting a number of UK tourist destinations, joined by other celebrities. In March 2022, a second series of five hour-long episodes was commissioned;
it premiered on 23 August 2022. Also in 2021, Jones appeared in the ''
QI'' episode "Sideshows, Stunts and Scavenger Hunts".
In 2021, Jones authored a children's novel, ''The Amazing Edie Eckhart''. The titular character, an 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, deals with the pressure of entering secondary school and becoming distant from her lifelong friend and support Charlie. Jones wrote a sequel novel, ''The Big Trip'', which was published on 18 August 2022.
In March 2022, Channel 4 commissioned ''Dine Hard'', a five-part
cooking show and
chat show that Jones will present. At the same time, they announced a one-off documentary starring Jones about societal prejudices against disabled people.
Stand-up comedy
Jones first performed stand-up comedy without preparation at a friend's comedy night.
In 2017, Jones performed "Inspiration" at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
. The show was 35 minutes long and contained jokes about her visit to the
2016 Summer Paralympics
)
, nations = 159
, athletes = 4,342
, opening = 7 September
, closing = 18 September
, opened_by = President Michel Temer
, cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva
, events = 528 in 22 sports
, stadium = Maracanã
, sum ...
, using disabled toilets, and commentary on the words "disabled" and "
spastic". It received 3.5 stars in
Chortle and three stars in ''
The List''. ''
Metro'' listed her as one of "9 hilarious women to look out for in 2017".
In 2018, Jones' Edinburgh Festival Fringe show was entitled "Fifteen Minutes". Jones talks about a hypothetical "able-bodied Rosie" and discusses a sexual fantasy about
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. Prominent in independent film, he has also worked in blockbuster films of varying genres, and has accrued a worldwide box office gross of over 1.9 billion USD. He has received ...
. She and her routine were featured in ''Edinburgh Nights'', a
BBC show about the Fringe presented by
Nish Kumar. "Fifteen Minutes" received five stars in
The Arts Desk and four stars in
iNews,
Chortle, ''
The Scotsman''
and Broadway World. It was listed by ''
Evening Standard'' as one of the ten "best comedy shows to see" at the festival.
Jones performed at the Greenwich Comedy Festival in 2018. In 2019, Jones performed at ''Spectacular'', a one-off event for
Comic Relief, and appeared at the 2019
Women of the World Festival. She has also been a support act for
Nish Kumar.
Comedic style
Jones has
ataxic cerebral palsy
Ataxic cerebral palsy is clinically in approximately 5–10% of all cases of cerebral palsy, making it the least frequent form of cerebral palsy diagnosed. Ataxic cerebral palsy is caused by damage to cerebellar structures, differentiating it from ...
; she incorporates her slow speech pattern into her comedy, constructing jokes to subvert the punchline that audiences expect.
For instance, she has used the opening line "As you can tell from my voice, I suffer from being northern."
Jones unexpectedly refers to previous jokes later in her performances, a trait which one critic describes as "clinically planned".
She describes her style as "cheeky",
commenting that she makes jokes that able-bodied people could not.
Jones' stand-up routines relate to disability and sexuality,
and have been described as
dark comedy.
In 2019, Jones received mixed reception for a joke she made on ''The Last Leg'' in which she said that as a 16-year-old, environmental activist
Greta Thunberg should only be concerned with "drinking
Lambrini and getting fingered."
Personal life
Jones is a
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
. On the
BBC Sounds
BBC Sounds is a Closed platform, walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile pho ...
podcast ''Duvet Days'', she said "Growing up, there was nobody in TV or radio that looked like me – that sounded like me. There was
Francesca Martinez in ''
Grange Hill'', but that was the only person really. And also my sexuality came into that, like when there was a disabled person they were very much the victim and they didn’t have a sexuality, they were very much the stock disabled person. That meant growing up, I didn’t accept my sexuality because I thought I’m not gay and disabled."
Jones has spoken on the rights of disabled people, describing bullying that she has experienced and difficulties in her daily life. She's expressed concerns over the particular vulnerability of disabled people during the
COVID-19 pandemic, and the way emphasis on the virus affecting people with pre-existing conditions has led to disabled people being coded as "second class citizens". During an interview with ''
The Guardian'', Jones commented: "I would love in the next few years to see more disabled comedians, directors, producers, commissioners. I hope disabled people can see me on TV and think: if she can do it, I can do it."
Jones grew up in
Bridlington and went to
Headlands School
Headlands School is a coeducational comprehensive school situated on Sewerby Road near the B1255, Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The school has 886 pupils aged 11–18.
Headlands is one of two secondary schools in Bridlington, ...
.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Rosie
1990 births
Living people
21st-century British comedians
21st-century British screenwriters
21st-century British women writers
Actors with disabilities
British people with disabilities
British stand-up comedians
British television writers
British women comedians
British women screenwriters
British lesbian writers
Lesbian comedians
LGBT actors from England
English lesbian actresses
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
People from Bridlington
People with cerebral palsy
British women television writers
Writers with disabilities
Television presenters with disabilities
Alumni of the University of Huddersfield