Francesca Martinez (born 1978) is an English comedian, writer and actress. She has cerebral palsy, but prefers to describe herself as "wobbly". [1] Martinez first came to public attention in 1994, when she made her debut on the television series Grange Hill, where she went on to portray the role of Rachel Burns for a total of 55 episodes. Later turning her focus to stand-up comedy, she has performed at the Edinburgh Festival and internationally, including the Melbourne Comedy Festival, the Adelaide Fringe Festival, the Perth Festival and the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. In 2018 she completed a 140-date tour, and has had off-West End London runs at the Tricycle Theatre, the Hackney Empire, and the Soho Theatre. Martinez's debut play, All of Us , was scheduled to be performed at the National Theatre in 2020, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [2] It opened in July 2022. [3]
Martinez was born in London to a Spanish father and a half-Swedish, half-English mother in 1978. [4] She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy aged two. [5] [6] Martinez was also incorrectly diagnosed as intellectually disabled by a consultant physician, but her parents chose for her to be educated at an integrated school, an experience that Martinez enjoyed. [6] She later attended an all-girls' high school, [7] an experience that harmed her previously good self-esteem. [5] She was 14 when she secured a role on the series Grange Hill. [8]
Before becoming a comedian, Martinez appeared in the BBC children's drama series Grange Hill from 1994 to 1998, where she played the first disabled pupil to appear in the fictional school, [9] and has acted in other drama series such as Holby City .
A year after she began performing stand-up comedy, [5] in 2000, Martinez became the first female comic to win the prestigious Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award at the Edinburgh Festival. [7] She performed her debut solo show, I'm Perfect, in 2002. [4] In 2003 she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.[ citation needed ]
In August 2005, she appeared in the BBC sitcom Extras . [10]
In April 2008, Martinez made global headlines when (live on Channel 4 News) she became the first Olympic torch bearer to pull out of the London relay in protest over China's treatment of Tibet. [11]
Martinez performed at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland alongside Emma Thompson.
In April 2009, she appeared on the BBC Radio 4 stand-up comedy show, 4 Stands Up . [12]
In October 2012, she made her debut appearance on BBC Radio 4's topical panel show The News Quiz , alongside regulars Jeremy Hardy and Sandi Toksvig. She appeared on The News Quiz again in January and July 2013.
In 2014, her best-selling book WHAT THE **** IS NORMAL?! was published by Random House to critical acclaim. It was nominated for the Chortle Comedy 'Best Book' Award and The Bread And Roses Radical Publishing Award.[ citation needed ] Her tour of the same name clocked up over 140 dates around the world – winning a Fringe Media Network Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as being nominated for Best Show at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival and at the Perth Festival, Australia.[ citation needed ]
In 2015, she opened series 11 of Live At The Apollo, which also featured Alan Carr and Nish Kumar. In 2016, Martinez supported Frankie Boyle on his sell-out UK tour.[ citation needed ]
Martinez has become a regular face on television, including appearances on The Frank Skinner Show , Russell Howard's Good News (BBC Three), The Jonathan Ross Show , ITV's Loose Women , Free Speech (BBC3), RTÉ's The Saturday Night Show with Brendan O'Connor, Adam Hills Tonight , Spicks and Specks and Question Time on BBC1.
Martinez has written scripts for the BBC and Channel 4. In 2018, her debut radio play How We're Loved aired on BBC Radio Four.
On 8 December 2012, Martinez launched a campaign War on Welfare [13] which pledged to get 100,000 supporters to sign a petition calling for an end to UK government cuts for disability benefits and an independent impact assessment of the government's welfare changes. The petition attracted 5,000 signatures in the first 48 hours [14] and achieved its target of 100,000 supporters on 30 November 2013. [15]
An outspoken opponent of welfare reform by the government, she uses her public profile to raise issues about disability and fight for what she believes would be a fairer system. Martinez said: "As a disabled person in the media, I want to help give this issue a voice. It's morally wrong for the government to target those in need instead of saving money by targeting the real causes of this crisis – and close tax loopholes and regulate the financial sector. To me, it's a human rights issue." [16]
She is patron of a number of charities. [17] [18]
She has challenged the government in numerous TV interviews, including on Newsnight and This Week , and in other TV appearances such as Question Time .
In 2015 she helped organise This Changes Everything, a one-day event on climate and social justice, with Naomi Klein, Russell Brand, and many other speakers. The event was streamed globally and aimed to kick-start a movement to unify the left against climate change.
In 2013 she was nominated for a Women in Public Life Award, and won the Public Affairs Achiever of the Year Award. In April 2014 she was named as one of Britain's most influential women in the BBC Woman's Hour power list 2014. [19] She was also nominated for Red Magazine's Woman of the Year Award 2014 and for a European Diversity Hero of the Year Award 2014.
Martinez has received honorary doctorates from the Open University and Bradford University.
In July 2015, Martinez endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. [20] In 2016, along with other celebrities, Martinez toured the UK to support Corbyn's bid to become Prime Minister. [21] [22] In September 2016, she performed at the Keep Corbyn rally in Brighton in support of Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. [23]
In November 2019, along with other public figures, Martinez signed a letter supporting Corbyn. [24] In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, she signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. [25] [26]
Eddie Izzard, also known as Suzy Izzard, is a British stand-up comedian, actor, and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime.
Stephen John Coogan is an English comedian, actor and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which he developed while working with Armando Iannucci on On the Hour and The Day Today. Partridge has featured in several television series and the 2013 film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. In 1999, he co-founded the production company Baby Cow Productions with Henry Normal. For his work he has garnered numerous accolades including four BAFTA Awards and three British Comedy Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.
Alexei David Sayle is an English actor, author, stand-up comedian, television presenter and former recording artist. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic of all time on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007. In an updated 2010 poll he came 72nd.
Jeremy James Hardy was an English comedian. Born and raised in Hampshire, Hardy studied at the University of Southampton and began his stand-up career in the 1980s, going on to win the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1988. He is best known for his appearances on radio panel shows such as the News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
Alison Louise Kennedy is a Scots writer, academic and stand-up comedian. She writes novels, short stories and non-fiction, and is known for her dark tone and her blending of realism and fantasy. She contributes columns and reviews to European newspapers.
Julie Claire Hesmondhalgh is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her role as Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street between 1998 and 2014. For this role, she won "Best Serial Drama Performance" at the 2014 National Television Awards and "Best Actress" at the 2014 British Soap Awards.
Janey Godley is a Scottish stand-up comedian, actress and writer from Glasgow.
Robin Ince is an English comedian, actor and writer, known for presenting the BBC radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage with physicist Brian Cox, creating Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People, co-creating The Cosmic Shambles Network, and his stand-up comedy career.
Janice Connolly is an English actress, comedian and artistic director. She runs the Birmingham-based group Women and Theatre and performs stand-up comedy as her character Mrs Barbara Nice. Connolly has also appeared in Coronation Street, That Peter Kay Thing, Phoenix Nights, Max and Paddy's Road To Nowhere, Thin Ice and Dead Man Weds. In 2017, Connolly was awarded a British Empire Medal in the New Years Honours list for services to community arts in the West Midlands. In 2022, she began appearing in the BBC soap opera Doctors as Rosie Colton.
Maysoon Zayid is an American actress and comedian. Of Palestinian descent, she is known as one of America's first Muslim women comedians.
Ava Beverley Vidal is an English comedian. She has taken part in E4's Kings of Comedy. Her career in comedy began on the BBC's Urban Sketch Show.
Sara Patricia Pascoe is an English actress, comedian, presenter and writer. She has appeared on television programmes including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown for Channel 4, QI for BBC and Taskmaster for the digital channel Dave.
Laurence Clark is a British stand-up comedian, writer, actor, presenter, and disability rights campaigner. Laurence was born with cerebral palsy and uses his line of work to alter the general public's perceptions of disabled people.
Jack Carroll is an English comedian and actor. He competed in the seventh series of Britain's Got Talent at the age of 14, finishing as the runner-up. As an actor, he appeared in two series of the CBBC series Ministry of Curious Stuff and from 2014 to 2018, he starred in the Sky sitcom Trollied. Carroll, whose cerebral palsy is often a subject of his act, won a Pride of Britain award in 2012.
Lee Ridley, better known by his stage name the Lost Voice Guy, is an English stand-up comedian. Disabled since early life, and unable to speak, in June 2018 he won the 12th series of Britain's Got Talent.
Jessica Thom is a British theatre-maker and comedian who established Touretteshero, an alter-ego and project aimed at increasing awareness of Tourette syndrome, the neurological condition which she was diagnosed with in her early twenties. The first Touretteshero production, Backstage in Biscuit Land debuted at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014. The show won critical acclaim and has since toured across the UK and internationally, including various performances across North America and Australia. Thom has also made numerous appearances on British television, notably an interview on Russell Howard's Good News which has garnered more than 995,000 YouTube views as of August 2019, and was reported on by The Independent and Metro newspapers.
Tracey Breaks the News is a British topical comedy programme starring Tracey Ullman. It premiered on BBC One on 27 October 2017 following a one-off special that aired on 23 June.
Ayesha Hazarika is a Scottish broadcaster, journalist and political commentator, and former political adviser to senior Labour Party politicians.
Rosie Jones is a British comedian, writer and actress. After starting her career as a writer on panel shows, she went on to appear as a guest on The Last Leg, 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, QI and Hypothetical. She attended the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo as a roving reporter for The Last Leg.
Gráinne Maguire is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer and podcaster.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)