Amy Lamé (née Caddle; born 3 January 1971) is an American-British performer, writer, and TV and radio presenter. She is known for her one-woman shows, her performance group Duckie, and

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

-themed media works. She was appointed by the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

Sadiq Khan Sir Sadiq Aman Khan (, ; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting (UK Parliament constituency), Tooting ...

, as the city's first " Night Czar" in November 2016, with the responsibility of promoting London's varied nightlife both in the UK and internationally, including safeguarding venues across the city.London's new Night Czar Amy Lamé facing growing questions over her business credentials , London Evening Standard
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Biography

Amy Lamé was born and raised in

Keyport, New Jersey Keyport is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in northern Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A waterfront community located on the Raritan Bay in the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region, the borough is a ...

, and moved to London in 1992. She is a lesbianAmy Lamé Dot Com
Retrieved 20 October 2012. and is married to Jennie (née Hogan), her partner since 1995.

Career

Radio

Lamé presented alongside Danny Baker on BBC London's afternoon show which aired 3–5pm from Monday to Friday. On 1 November 2012, it was reported by Danny Baker that the show had been axed and that Lamé earned £50 per episode. She was the co-founder and co-presenter of HomoLab, a weekly

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

cultural and current affairs podcast, which ran from December 2010 to June 2014. Having sat in for a number of DJs on

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

(including Tom Ravenscroft, Lauren Laverne,

Nemone Nemone Metaxas (born 3 November 1972 in Chester, Cheshire), often billed simply as Nemone, is an English DJ, radio presenter and television presenter/producer. She is also a trained psychotherapist practising in West and Central London. She is ...

, and Steve Lamacq), Lamé began hosting her own weekly Sunday show on the station from January 2018, replacing ''Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service''.

TV

Lamé was a presenter on the BBC 2 show GaytimeTV for 3 series and then went on to create and host her own panel game-show, ''The Staying in Show'' for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. Lamé has appeared on ITV reality show '' Celebrity Fit Club''. She was a panellist on '' Loose Women'' in 2004 and '' CelebAir'', and on '' Market Kitchen''. She was the mentor for LGBTQ teenagers on

's ''My Big Gay Prom''. In 2009, she appeared in a ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' related documentary titled ''Look 100 Years Younger'', included on the DVD release of

The Twin Dilemma ''The Twin Dilemma'' is the seventh and final serial of the Doctor Who season 21, 21st season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 22 to 30 March 1984. It was ...

, in which she discussed with actor Colin Baker the various costumes worn by the character of the Doctor over the decades. In 2012 she appeared on Channel 4's live satirical comedy/news programme '' 10 O'Clock Live'' to discuss the current state of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

Writing

Lamé has contributed short stories to the anthology ''Typical Girls''. She also writes regular features on culture, travel, and food for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''.

Duckie and other works

In 1995, Lamé, with Simon Strange, co-founded the Olivier-award-winning

performance-club-night and collective Duckie, which she hosts every Saturday night at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a historic gay venue in

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

. In 1996 she curated, produced and hosted Keep The Faith at Tate Britain which explored the links between the gallery's permanent collection and faith. She commissioned new work to be shown in the gallery for one night only including an interactive performance installation tea party with 30 Anglican priests; Joshua Sofaer's tale of meeting his Jews for Jesus

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

namesake, Joshua Sofaer, in Namesake: The Story of a Name; Jonathan Allen/ Tommy Angel's performance exploring evangelism and belief using magic and illusion; and a Buddhist tour of the gallery. The event had the highest ever recorded number of participants – over 5,000 – for a ''Late at Tate''. In 1996, her second one-woman show, ''Cum Manifesto'', a show about safer sex for gay men, debuted on Hampstead Heath and toured to gay male cruising grounds around the UK and

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. Working with the Duckie collective in 1997, Lamé produced and hosted The World's First Lesbian Beauty Contest. In 2006, Lamé created her third one-woman show ''Amy Lamé's Mama Cass Family Singers''. The show debuted at the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

and was later performed at the Soho Theatre, London, toured the UK and performed at The Powerhouse,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia She made her stage debut in her first one-woman show ''Gay Man Trapped in a Lesbian's Body'' as part of ICA London's 'Spring Exhibitions' programme. She founded the social enterprise Pom Pom International and has held pom-pom-making parties at Duckie, London's Lesbian and Gay Festival 2008 and in Northern Ireland where she held the 'Pom-poms for Peace Project'.

London Night Czar

On 4 November 2016, London Mayor

announced that Lamé would become the first London night czar and would be tasked with ensuring that London continued to thrive as a 24-hour city. She was initially awarded a salary of £116,925 per year for the role and was given a 40% pay increase in 2023. Shortly after her appointment, she was praised by Khan for her role in negotiating the reopening of the

Fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is no ...

nightclub. During her tenure, London was heavily impacted by the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and its night time economy declined significantly. Data showed that between March 2020 and December 2023, 3,011 night economy businesses in and around the capital closed, the steepest fall for any English region. Her role and the ability for the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds supermajority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject t ...

to hold her to account was a source of confusion, given that she was classed as a GLA member of staff and therefore could not be scrutinised by the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, or the Greens in the London Assembly. In October 2024, Lamé's resignation from the role of night czar was announced. The news came in the wake of heavy criticism of her perceived inaction in the role.

Politics

Lamé is an active member of, and fundraiser for, the Labour Party. She is mentioned in Sarah Brown's memoir ''Behind the Black Door'' (2011), where she details Lamé's hen night celebrations in

Downing Street Downing Street is a gated street in City of Westminster, Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a cul-de-sac situated off Whiteh ...

. From May 2010 to May 2011, she held the ceremonial role of Mayoress of Camden alongside the Mayor, Councillor Jonathan Simpson. In 2014, Lamé sought nomination to be the Labour candidate for the South London seat of Dulwich and West Norwood. She was unsuccessful, losing to

Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur (; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress. Often referred to as the "First Lady of American Theatre", she was the second person and first woman to win EGOT, the EGOT (an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and ...

. In October 2018, Lamé successfully managed to lobby

Waitrose Waitrose Limited, trading as Waitrose & Partners, is a British supermarket chain, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. In 1937, it was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned b ...

to change the name of its Gentleman's Smoked Chicken Caesar Roll, after arguing that it was sexist.

Controversies

Shortly after her appointment in November 2016, Lamé was ordered to delete a number of offensive tweets about the Conservative Party, which included celebration of the death of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

and fantasies of assaulting

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

and Sayeeda Warsi. In July 2018, Lamé was criticised by prominent music industry figures such as

Four Tet Kieran Miles David Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting and critically acc ...

and Andy Peyton after Hackney Council voted to make new businesses close at 11pm under new licensing laws. In March 2019, after live music venue The Social was saved from closing after a

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

campaign, figures such as Andrew Boff called Amy Lamé's role as night czar into question, arguing that the position is an ineffective job and should be scrapped. In February 2020, it emerged that Lamé was paid an extra £1,000 out of

Sadiq Khan's culture budget to host a

drag act Drag is a performance of exaggerated femininity, masculinity, or other forms of gender expression, usually for entertainment purposes. Drag usually involves cross-dressing. A drag queen is someone (usually male) who performs femininely and a drag ...

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At ...

Assembly Hall, which charged a £15 entry fee. In January 2025, Lamé was criticised for setting up a ‘global

consultancy A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Con ...

’ company called "24hr Cities". Critics alleged she was seeking to profit from her experience as London Czar despite nightlife eroding during her tenure “while taking home a substantial salary”.

References

External links

*
''Amy Lamé''
(BBC Radio 6 Music)
HomoLab websitePom Pom International website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lame, Amy 1971 births Living people People from Keyport, New Jersey Comedians from Monmouth County, New Jersey Comedians from London American emigrants to England American women podcasters American Episcopalians American radio DJs American women radio hosts American women television hosts American lesbian actresses American lesbian politicians American LGBTQ broadcasters American LGBTQ comedians English lesbian actresses English lesbian politicians English LGBTQ broadcasters English LGBTQ comedians English Anglicans English podcasters English women radio presenters English women television presenters British women podcasters Lesbian comedians LGBTQ podcasters LGBTQ people from New Jersey Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom BBC Radio 6 Music presenters Labour Party (UK) officials 21st-century English LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people