Sandi Toksvig

Sandra Birgitte Toksvig (born 3 May 1958) is a Danish-British writer, comedian and broadcaster on British radio, stage and television.

In 1969, her father covered the landing of the first man on the moon from mission control; she was holding the hand of Neil Armstrong's secretary during the landing.

While her father was based in London, she attended Tormead School, an independent girls' school near Guildford.

Her first job, at the age of 18, was as a follow spot operator for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

She read law, archaeology and anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a first-class degree and receiving two prizes (The Raemakers and the Theresa Montefiore Awards) for outstanding achievement.

One of her law supervisors was Lord Denning.

Toksvig began her comedy career at Girton, where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman show at the Footlights.

She was there at the same time as Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery, and Emma Thompson, and wrote additional material for the Perrier award-winning Cambridge Footlights Revue.

She was also a member of the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society.

She started her television career on children's television, presenting No. 73 (1982–1986), the Sandwich Quiz, The Saturday Starship, Motormouth, Gilbert's Fridge, for Television South, and factual programmes such as Island Race and The Talking Show, produced by Open Media for Channel 4.

In television, she appeared as a panellist in comedy shows such as Call My Bluff (a regular as a team captain), Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Mock the Week, QI, and Have I Got News for You, where she appeared on the first episode in 1990.

She was also the host of What the Dickens, a Sky Arts quiz show.

The pair also wrote the 1992 TV series The Big One, in which she also starred.

She has appeared in a number of stage plays, including Androcles and the Lion, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Comedy of Errors.

In 1993, Toksvig wrote a musical, Big Night Out at the Little Sands Picture Palace, for Nottingham Playhouse, co-starring with Anita Dobson and Una Stubbs.

In 1994, she came out as a lesbian.

In 1996, she narrated the Dragons! interactive CD-ROM published by Oxford University Press and developed by Inner Workings, along with Harry Enfield.

The software was primarily aimed at children and featured songs and poems about dragons.

She also narrated the Winnie the Witch CD-ROM.

In 2000, she appeared as a guest presenter on Time Team, at a dig in York (season 7 episode 13).

In the comedy circuit, Toksvig performed at the first night of the Comedy Store in London, and was once part of their Players, an improvisational comedy team.

In 2002, it was re-written, with Dilly Keane, for the Watford Palace Theatre, in which they appeared with Bonnie Langford.

Toksvig and Elly Brewer wrote a Shakespeare deconstruction, The Pocket Dream, which Toksvig performed at the Nottingham Playhouse and which transferred to the West End for a short run.

On radio, she is a familiar voice for BBC Radio 4 listeners, having appeared on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, The Unbelievable Truth, and as the chair of The News Quiz, where she replaced Simon Hoggart in September 2006, but left in June 2015 in order to enter politics to champion women's rights.

She appeared in the Doctor Who audio drama Red by Big Finish Productions, released in August 2006.

In December 2006, she hosted and sang at the London Gay Men's Chorus sold-out Christmas show, Make the Yuletide Gay, at the Barbican Centre.

Over Christmas and New Year 2007/2008, she narrated the pantomime Cinderella at the Old Vic Theatre.

She presented Radio 4's travel programme Excess Baggage until it was axed in 2012.

She is also a political activist, having co-founded the Women's Equality Party in 2015.

She has written plays, novels and books for children.

Toksvig was the president of the Women of the Year Lunch from 2015 to 2017.

Toksvig was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Her father, Claus Toksvig, was a Danish journalist, broadcaster, and foreign correspondent; as a result, Toksvig spent most of her youth outside Denmark, mostly in New York City.

Her mother, Julie Anne Toksvig (née Brett), is British.

She has an older brother, Nick, who is a journalist, and a younger sister, Jenifer, a librettist, who was born when Sandi was 12.

When Sandi was 24, she was appointed Jenifer's legal guardian.

Her final show was first broadcast on 26 June 2015.

Toksvig took over from Stephen Fry as host of the BBC television quiz show QI in 2016 (series 'N'), having been a guest a number of times and she spent ten years hosting The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4.

From 2017 to 2020 she was co-presenter of The Great British Bake Off, alongside comedian Noel Fielding.

In 2020, she stepped down and was replaced by Matt Lucas.