Lucy Porter (born 27 January 1973, Croydon, Greater London) is an English actress, writer and comedienne.
She has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, the Brighton Festival and many clubs around Britain. She has also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel shows, including Quote... Unquote and The Personality Test.
She is petite, and her stand-up style is characterised as chatty and charming while dealing with adult themes from a woman's point of view.
While working as a researcher for Granada Television, on programmes such as The Mrs Merton Show, she began to perform stand-up comedy. Her first performance was at a club in Chester, because that was far enough from home that if it went badly no one would know her.[1]
As an actress, she has made brief appearances in Life's a Pitch and Absolute Power. Her first high profile acting role was alongside Christian Slater in the stage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. She reprised her role of a nurse for the 2005 London production.
In 2005, she made regular appearances on Broken News as Claudia Van Sant.[2]
She has been one of the writers for all nine series of Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections, appearing as a special guest performer in many editions. Porter also starred in The Powder Room alongside Julia Morris and Gina Yashere, which was also broadcast on BBC Radio 2.[3]
She is also the script writer for two series of BBC Three's Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife.
In July 2006 she appeared in the first episode of Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive panel show-based comedy. She was a panelist on show 7 of satirical news quiz show Have I Got News For You's 32nd series,[4] and has appeared on other popular UK panel shows, such as Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Mock the Week.
In May 2007, Porter became host of a The Guardian podcast, Many Questions and more recently 'The Heckle'. In June 2007, Porter came second in a celebrity edition of The Weakest Link. Porter appeared in 2007 on ITV2's Comedy Cuts, a programme showcasing the best of the British stand-up comedy circuit.
Lucy Porter has recorded her stand-up show The Good Life for a DVD release by independent label Go Faster Stripe,[5] and appeared in the 2008 and 2009 series of Mock The Week. She is also regularly seen as the warm-up act for Mitchell & Webb's television series screenings at the BBC TV Centre.
In 2009 Lucy took her show 'The Bare Necessities' on a tour of the UK, playing 30 dates between February - June.
In September 2009 Lucy appeared on The One Show on BBC One to do a feature on heights. During this feature she was measured and was found to be 4ft 11in.