Sarah Kendall (born 3 August 1976) is an Australian comedian from

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

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. She won the

Raw Comedy Raw Comedy is an Australian annual competition for emerging stand-up comedians held by Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It was established in 1996 and is supported by national youth radio station Triple J. In 2011, there were 1,100 conte ...

competition in 1998 and appeared regularly on Australian television. She moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 2000 at the age of 24.

Early life

Kendall grew up in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area, w ...

and attended

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. She moved on to Sydney University at the age of 18. She began her career in 1996 partaking in the annual 'Review' show. Of it she said: “It started at university where there was a stand-up competition which some of my friends said I should do but I was too scared to do it. I was a genuine coward about it all and that in itself started to bug me, so eventually I got up on stage. I hated every single minute of it and was sick beforehand. But that made even more determined because I couldn’t work out why my fear was so disproportionate to the thing I was doing. It was just me talking for five minutes and so what if I got booed off stage. After about seven or eight years I eventually got it under control.”

Stand-up comedy

Kendall has performed solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 2003, with her 2004 show being nominated for the

Perrier award Perrier ( , also , ) is a French brand of natural bottled mineral water obtained at its source in Vergèze, located in the Gard ''département''. Perrier is known for its carbonation and its distinctive green bottle. Perrier was part of th ...

. She has also performed in the Melbourne Comedy Festival since 2000. Kendall talked about how she has reviewed her own comic response to a heckler who threatened her with sexual violence during a routine in an article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' on 2 August 2014. She said, "I built a routine around it – but looking back, I betrayed the seriousness of the incident". Kendall remarked that she dropped the routine because it started to sit uncomfortably with her.

Television and radio

Kendall has been a "special guest" on the BBC Radio 2 comedy show ''

Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections ''Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections'' was a BBC Radio 2 satirical comedy show starring Andy Parsons and Henry Naylor. It also stars Richie Webb, and one female "special guest". Female guests included Lucy Porter, Jo Caulfield, Julia M ...

''. She was part of an all-female sketch comedy show called ''Beehive'' also starring Alice Lowe,

Barunka O'Shaughnessy Barunka O'Shaughnessy is a British actress, writer and producer. She is best known for playing Sacha Merrion on '' Bo! in the USA'' and for her appearances in ''The Mighty Boosh''.

and Clare Thomson, which was aired on E4. She was a guest stand up comic on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

's ''

Russell Howard's Good News ''Russell Howard's Good News'' was a British comedy and topical news television show which was broadcast on BBC Three between 2009 and 2014, and on BBC Two between 2014 and 2015. Hosted by comedian Russell Howard, it offered his commentary on ...

''. From 2010 she took the role of Libby McKenzie, an Australian character introduced in Series 6 of the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

series ''

Clare in the Community ''Clare in the Community'' is a British radio comedy series, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, starring Sally Phillips as Clare. It was adapted from the comic strip of the same name which appeared in ''The Guardian'' newspaper, written by Harry Venning ...

''. On 23 November 2012 Kendall appeared on

's satirical news show ''

The Now Show ''The Now Show'' is a British radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, which satirises the week's news. The show is a mixture of stand-up, sketches and songs hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. The show used to feature regular appearances b ...

'', and on 4 May 2015 appeared in ''The Vote Now Show'', one of six election specials. Kendall appeared on the

Dave Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...

TV series '' Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled''. She was a guest on

's '' Quote... Unquote'' on 21 September 2015. In March 2017, her three-part series ''Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy'' was broadcast on

. A second volume of Sarah Kendall's Australian Trilogy was aired in August 2018. She has also appeared in

Richard Herring Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the lead ...

's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in 2021, in which Herring took issue with an article that suggested she met her husband at the

Edinburgh 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 ...

, she revealed that they in fact met at a Melbourne Comedy festival. She was also featured in a

Georg Jensen Georg Arthur Jensen (31 August 1866 in Rådvad – 2 October 1935 in Copenhagen) was a Danish silversmith and founder of Georg Jensen A/S (also known as Georg Jensen Sølvsmedie). Early life Born in 1866, Jensen was the son of a knife gr ...

commercial. She appeared in the season finale episode of the first season of ''

Motherland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...

'', originally aired on BBC2, as a nanny. In 2019, Kendall created, wrote and starred in the comedy TV series '' Frayed'', renewed in 2021. Kendall was the winner of Series 11 of the comedy game show '' Taskmaster''.

Personal life

Kendall was married to

Henry Naylor Henry James Naylor (born 19 January 1966) is a British comedy writer, director and performer. He is also a playwright. Early life Naylor read history and history of art at Downing College, Cambridge. Career Naylor was head writer for '' Spi ...

and has two children. She identifies as gay.

Awards

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Sarah Australian women comedians Living people 1976 births People from Newcastle, New South Wales