Catherine Tate

Catherine Jane Ford (born 5 December 1969), known professionally as Catherine Tate, is a British actress, comedian and writer.

Tate was born in Bloomsbury, London, on 5 December 1969 and was raised in the Brunswick Centre.

Her mother, Josephine, was a florist.

Tate has said that the character of Margaret in The Catherine Tate Show, who shrieks at the slightest of disturbances, is based largely on her mother.

Tate never knew her father as he left very early on in her life and, consequently, she was brought up in a female-dominated environment, being cared for by her mother, grandmother, and godparents.

As a child, Tate had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and was obsessed with word association.

For example, she was not able to leave a jumper on the floor because it might have brought misfortune to her mother, whose name began with the letter "J" like "jumper".

Tate attended St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School in Holborn, and Notre Dame High School, a convent secondary school for girls in Southwark.

By the time she was a teenager, she knew she wanted a professional acting career; following the abolition of the sixth form at her secondary school, she was sent to a boys' Roman Catholic school, Salesian College in Battersea, at the age of 16, as it had the necessary facilities for drama.

She left school without sitting her A levels.

She then tried for four years to get a place in the Central School of Speech and Drama, succeeding on her fourth attempt.

She studied there for three years.

Prior to getting a place there, Tate went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, but left after a week, later stating, "Even at that age, I realised I wasn't Bonnie Langford. It was very competitive."

She was also a member of the National Youth Theatre.

Born Catherine Ford, she changed her name when she got her Equity card as an actress.

She chose her new surname after the character of Jessica Tate, played by Katherine Helmond, from the American sitcom television series Soap.

From 1988 to 1990 Tate toured with the National Youth Theatre production of Blood Wedding, which also starred Daniel Craig and Jessica Hynes.

Her debut happened in an episode of the sitcom Surgical Spirit in 1991.

She was offered an audition for the part by the casting director who also owned a sandwich shop Tate used to go in and knew she was about to go to drama college.

On the set, she got to work with actor Duncan Preston, of whom she was a big fan.

In 1994, she got the part of Lydia Lubey in the Oxford Stage Company production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons.

She then worked at the Royal National Theatre, playing small roles in The Way of the World (1995) and The Prince's Play (1996).

In 1996 Tate began performing stand-up comedy.

Soon after, she co-wrote and starred in Barking (1998), a late-night sketch show broadcast on Channel 4 featuring a host of performers who included David Walliams, Peter Kay and Mackenzie Crook.

Tate also performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company during its 10-month tour across the UK, Australia and the US with Lee Hall's adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters (2000–2001).

Her television acting career began with roles in serial dramas such as The Bill and London's Burning.

In 2000, she became involved with Lee Mack's Perrier Comedy Award-nominated New Bits show at the Edinburgh Film Festival and appeared in television sketch shows such as The Harry Hill Show and That Peter Kay Thing.

The next year, she returned to the festival with her own sell-out one-woman show, which was followed by roles in comedy series Big Train, Attention Scum, Charlie Brooker's TVGoHome and several BBC Radio productions.

After being spotted at Edinburgh by the casting director Tracey Gillham, she was given her first major television role as Angela in the comedy Wild West (2002–2004) set in the small Cornish town.

Tate became pregnant before filming the first series and had to wear a lot of baggy clothes as Angela.

The show also starred Dawn French as her lesbian partner and local shop and post office co-owner Mary, who commented, "Catherine Tate is far too talented and she must be destroyed."

Tate was approached at a post-show party at the Edinburgh Festival by then-BBC controller of comedy Geoffrey Perkins, who encouraged Tate to develop her character ideas, especially to push the boundaries with her teenage character Lauren Cooper.

Undertaking Perkins's advice, after a live show, Tate found the audience walking out of the show repeating the character's catchphrase "Am I bovvered?".

She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show (2004–2007), as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTAs.

Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of Doctor Who, and later reprised her role for the fourth series in 2008, and the 60th anniversary episodes in 2023.

Tate has appeared in films, including Love and Other Disasters, Starter for 10 (both 2006), Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution (2007), Gulliver's Travels (2010), Monte Carlo (2011), and SuperBob (2015).

Tate starred as Joanie Taylor ("Nan") in the BBC One comedy series Catherine Tate's Nan (2009–2015) and in the film The Nan Movie (2022).

In 2011, she began a recurring role as Nellie Bertram in the U.S. version of The Office, and was a regular until the series ended.

She also played the role of Miss Sarah Postern in the BBC One sitcom Big School (2013–2014) and voiced Magica De Spell in the animated series DuckTales (2017–2021).

In the early 2020s, she created and starred in two sitcoms, Netflix's Hard Cell which she also co-directed, and BBC One's Queen of Oz.