Rebecca Front

Rebecca Louise Front (born 16 May 1964) is an English actress, writer and comedian.

She made a short promotional video on energy conservation with Michael Simkins in the late 1980s.

Front achieved a higher profile as a result of her work with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring on the radio shows Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World and On the Hour, and the television and radio series Fist of Fun.

She went on to form a close professional association with Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Doon Mackichan and Steve Coogan, who all transferred with Front to The Day Today, the television version of On the Hour.

While at Oxford in 1984, Front took part in the revue Stop the Weak.

The tour played in Oxford itself, the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, Edinburgh, Salisbury, and Romsey.

Completing The Day Today were Patrick Marber, who was part of the 1984 Oxford University revue with Front and David Schneider, who took part in the 1985 revue.

In 1985, Front teamed up with Sioned Wiliam and Jon Magnusson to take the show The Bobo Girls go BOO to Edinburgh.

This cast continued to contribute to the Alan Partridge comedy canon throughout the 1990s.

In recent years Front has also become a fixture on comedy panel shows on British television and radio including The News Quiz, Have I Got News for You and If I Ruled The World.

She has also had minor roles in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Absolute Power and Absolutely Fabulous and she has also played straight acting roles in television drama, including You Can Choose Your Friends, The Rotters' Club, Kavanagh QC, Lewis and Jonathan Creek.

She is also known for her work in numerous other British comedies, including the radio show On The Hour (1992), The Day Today (1994), Knowing Me, Knowing You… with Alan Partridge (1994), Time Gentlemen Please (2000–2002), sketch show Big Train (2002), and Nighty Night (2004–2005).

In 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

Front has also been seen in a number of dramatic roles, including Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent in Lewis (2006–2014), Mrs. Bennet in Death Comes to Pemberley (2013), Mrs. Landau in The Eichmann Show (2015), Vera in Humans (2015), and Death in Paradise (2019).

Her theatre credits include the musicals Company and The Fix at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Sam Mendes.

Front was born in Stoke Newington, London, to Sheila and Charles Front.

Her mother wrote children's books, which her father illustrated.

Her father also designed the title-logo on the cover of The Beatles' album Rubber Soul.

Her father is Jewish and her mother is of Jewish and Welsh descent.

Front was brought up in Reform Judaism.

Front became involved in comedy while at St Hugh's College at the University of Oxford, where she read English and became the first female president of The Oxford Revue.

She also trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

From 2006, she has written columns for The Guardian.

Between 2006 until 2014, Front had a recurring role as Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent on the detective drama series Lewis, the successor to Inspector Morse on ITV.

In 2007, she guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio drama The Mind's Eye.

In 2009 and 2012, respectively, she appeared in the third and fourth series of political satire The Thick of It, playing Nicola Murray MP, Secretary of State for Citizenship and Social Affairs and in charge of the dysfunctional 'DoSAC', and later, Leader of the Opposition.

She won the 2010 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for The Thick of It (2009–2012).

Front featured in the 2010 BBC comedy series Grandma's House playing the part of Simon Amstell's mother Tanya, and Just William, as the mother of William Brown and also starred in the 2011 live-action 3D family comedy film Horrid Henry: The Movie as Henry's headmistress, Miss Oddbod.

In 2012 Front starred as the psychiatrist in the Sky Arts sketch series Psychobitches, where Front's character offers therapy to notable women of history and the present day, including Anne Boleyn, Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Shelley, Enid Blyton, Eva Braun, Mary Pickford, Edith Piaf, and Anna Nicole Smith.

The series aired on the British television channel Sky Arts 1.

In 2013, she starred in the new Sky Living comedy The Spa, in the role of Alison Crabbe.

She plays Cox in The Wrong Mans, a six-part comedy-thriller for BBC Two.

The premiere was on 24 September 2013.

She narrated Fox Wars which was broadcast on 22 October 2013.

In December 2013, Sky Atlantic aired a new comedy series called Little Cracker.

The second programme in the series was an autobiographical story written by Front and her brother Jeremy.

It concerns the time she witnessed the near-drowning of her father in a lake; that incident was closely followed by the death of her grandfather.

The proximity of these two experiences caused Front considerable personal anguish.

The first episode of a second series was broadcast on 25 November 2014.

She reprised this role in December 2014 for a special two-parter.