SARAH MILLICAN

Despite being a latecomer to the comedy circuit, stand-up Sarah Millican is now widely regarded as one of the funniest - if not the funniest - female comedians in the business. Having only started performing stand-up comedy in 2004, at the less than tender age of 29, Geordie Sarah Millican had never actually stepped foot in a comedy club until the night of her first gig.
Growing up in South Shields, in that hard to please comedy hotbed of the north east, Sarah Millican’s comedy epiphany coincided with her divorce after seven years of marriage, when she found comfort in attending and joining writing workshops in local theatres and arts venues including her home town club The Customs House, South Shields, which played host to many of Sarah Millican’s early offerings.
It was only a short step from there to taking her writing on the stage and so another stand-up comedian was born. Within four years, Sarah Millican used her divorce and its aftermath as the inspiration for her debut show at the Edinburgh Festival, Sarah Millican's Not Nice. It scooped Sarah Millican the prestigious If.Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier) prize for Best Newcomer. Mind you, we shouldn't have been too surprised - she had already been a finalist in the BBC Comedy Awards and So You Think You're Funny, as well as going one better to take the top slot in the Amused Moose Comedy Awards.
In Summer 2009, the female Geordie comedian Sarah Millican again took Edinburgh by storm with her second show Typical Woman, which explored the age old subject of the differences between men and women, but with a fresh and hilarious approach that had some of the supposedly unshockable critics choking on their gin and tonics.
Now an established stand-up comedian on the entire UK comedy circuit, Sarah is one of the hottest and most popular acts on any comedy club bill. Sarah Millican’s crowd-pleasing style mixes superbly written and tightly honed stand-up material, with a mild-mannered delivery style that belies much of her subject matter and the acerbic nature of her observations on life, love, men, smelly pens, living with your parents and men.
And while men maybe the butt of much of her humour, comedian Sarah Millican is no man-hater and her biting material is lapped up as uproarishly by the men in the audience as the knowing women.
Having conquered and entertained all the biggest and best comedy clubs in the UK, the now TV star comedian Sarah Millican has recently spread her wings on to the world stage, including  the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, where she was nominated for the prestigious Barry Award.
She has also ventured into the heady world of television, appearing on shows like Mock the Week, Michael Mcintyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Have I Got News For You, the Secret Policeman's Ball and 8 Out of 10 Cats. She is also due to appear on the forthcoming BBC series of Live At The Apollo. In a demonstration of Sarah Millican’s diversity and her love of more than just the human world, Sarah's vocal talents can also be heard on the BBC1 series Walk on the Wild Side. Her radio series, Sarah Millican's Support Group, will be broadcast early in 2010 on BBC Radio 4, whereby the studio audience will be encouraged to share problems with Sarah's agony aunt character - a mischievous and opinionated busybody like the "one at the end of your street who knows everything and dishes out advice whether you want to hear it or not".
A truly brilliant stand-up comedian, Sarah Millican has just one request - she hates the term "comedienne", so please don't use it.