Sophie Duker (born 1989/1990) is a British
stand-up comedian and writer.
Early life
Duker was born in
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 ...
to first-generation immigrants from
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
. Her mother is from
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
and her father is from
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
. She studied French and English at
Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road.
Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...
. She joined the
Oxford Imps in her first year at university.
Career
An alumna of the Pleasance Comedy Reserve, Duker was shortlisted for the
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, ...
award in 2015. She founded and hosted the "Manic Pixie Dream Girls" show as part of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
's Free Festival in 2016 and 2017.
She has written for the ''
Huffington Post'' and she was an
assistant producer for ''
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 ...
'' and a researcher for ''
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' is a British comedy panel show on Channel 4. The show follows the game of ''Countdown'', but presented in a comedic panel show format seen on ''8 Out of 10 Cats'', with the show being a crossover of the two. ...
''. In 2019, she appeared on ''
8 Out of 10 Cats
''8 Out of 10 Cats'' is a British comedy panel show broadcast on Channel 4 and its sister networks, airing since 3 June 2005. The show is hosted by Jimmy Carr; the current team captains are Rob Beckett and Katherine Ryan.
The show is based ...
'', ''Frankie Boyle's New World Order'', ''Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions Apply'', and ''
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 ...
'', and in 2020 in ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''.
In 2017, Duker appeared in a Turtle Canyon short entitled "The Dates", which explores bisexual dating culture.
In 2018, Duker set up the comedy night "Wacky Racists", which currently has a monthly residency at 2Northdown in Kings Cross, London, and performs spin-off shows at festivals and events across the UK. In December 2019, Soho Theatre hosted a seasonal Christmas "Wacky Racists" special.
Duker co-starred in the pilot for a hidden camera sketch show on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
called ''Riot Girls'' as well as on the
Comedy Central UK
Comedy Central is a British pay television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated. This channel is specific to audiences within the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is aligned with the original US versi ...
comedy show ''
What I Wish I’d Said'' in 2018.
Her first stand-up show, "Diet Woke", premiered in 2018. She took her 2019 show, "Venus", to the
Brighton Fringe
Brighton Fringe is an open-access arts festival held annually in Brighton, England. It is the largest annual arts festival in England and one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. The programme of 2018 included 1008 events at over 166 ve ...
and 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 ...
, performing at the Edinburgh Pleasance from 31 July to 25 August 2019. In 2019, Duker appeared on Hip-Hop Comedy Panel Show, ''Don't Hate the Playaz''.
In September 2020, during one of Duker's appearances on ''
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 ...
'', the host
Frankie Boyle
Francis Martin Patrick Boyle (born 16 August 1972) is a Scottish comedian and writer. He is known for his cynical, surreal, graphic and often controversial sense of humour.
A stand-up comedian since 1995, Boyle first gained widespread recogni ...
proposed the motion "
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...
Glosses Over The Complexities Of A World Where We All Need To Come Together And Kill Whitey". A clip of Duker making a joke which repeated the phrase "kill whitey"—a phrase pre-approved by the BBC, according to Duker—was widely spread online.
Duker joked about the phrase in the context of discussing her views on whiteness and capitalism in response to a 1970s clip of
James Baldwin talking about
black power.
Duker described that "far-right blogs to mainstream tabloids" began covering the story six days after the episode aired,
with the ''
Daily Mail''s
Sarah Vine
Sarah Rosemary Vine (born 16 April 1967) is a British columnist. She has written for the '' Daily Mail'' since 2013. She was previously arts editor at ''The Times''. She was previously married to Conservative MP Michael Gove.
Early life
Sara ...
criticising the comments as "hateful dogma",
subsequent to which 1,300 complaints were made to the
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. ...
...
.
The BBC responded that the content was "within audience expectations for a post-watershed, topical, satirical programme from a comedian whose style and tone are well-established", later dismissing the complaints. A Greater Manchester police hate crime investigation was opened after a report in early January and closed a week later with no action.
Duker was subject to racist harassment on social media over the comments.
In 2021, she was hired by Rumpus Media to co-present a new female-led topical panel show on Comedy Central called ''Yesterday, Today and The Day Before'' alongside fellow comedians Suzi Ruffell and Maisie Adam. However, Duker quit after the first episode in protest over cuts to her monologue about conflict between Israel and Palestine, with assistant producer Saima Ferdows and comedian Kemah Bob also quitting the show alongside her.
Duker's first gig after lockdown was a fundraiser for
in July 2021. In 2022, she won the thirteenth season of the comedy panel game show ''
''. She won her episode of the latter with the specialist subject of
''. She returned to the Edinburgh Festival line-up in 2022 with a show titled "Hag".
.