Jo Brand
Encyclopedia
Josephine Grace "Jo" Brand (born 23 July 1957) is a BAFTA winning British comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

, writer, and actor.

Early life

Jo Brand was born 23 July 1957 in Wandsworth
London Borough of Wandsworth
The London Borough of Wandsworth is a London borough in southwest London, England, and forms part of Inner London.-History:The borough was formed in 1965 from the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea and much of the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth, but...

, London. Her mother was a social worker. Brand is the middle of three children, with two brothers. When she was about four, the family moved to the village of St Mary's Platt near Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...

 in Kent, and a year later to Benenden
Benenden
Benenden is a village and civil parish in the Tunbridge Wells District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the Weald six miles to the west of Tenterden...

. Brand was educated at Helenswood School
Helenswood School
Helenswood Girls School is an all-female secondary school in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex in the United Kingdom, and has achieved specialist Arts College status. It takes girls from age 11 to age 16, and there is a separate Sixth form which is shared with William Parker School, a local boys'...

, Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....

, Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School
Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School
Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School , established in 1905, is an all female selective state school in Royal Tunbridge Wells, a town in Kent, England...

 and Bexhill College
Bexhill College
Bexhill College is a sixth form college with a long history of average post 16 education. In September 2004, the college moved into brand new buildings situated in Penland Road, Bexhill-On-Sea...

. She worked as a psychiatric nurse for ten years, at the South London Bethlem
Bethlem Royal Hospital
The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses....

, Cefn Coed Hospital
Cefn Coed Hospital
Cefn Coed Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Swansea, Wales.The hospital is run by Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board. As well as general adult and old age psychiatric care, it also supports substance abusers...

 in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

 and Maudsley Hospital
Maudsley Hospital
The Maudsley Hospital is a British psychiatric hospital in South London. The Maudsley is the largest mental health training institution in the country...

 in South London.

Comedy career

Brand was persuaded by agent Malcolm Hardee
Malcolm Hardee
Malcolm Hardee was an English comedian, author, comedy club proprietor, compère, agent, manager and "amateur sensationalist"....

 to begin a career in stand-up comedy, where she acquired the stage name "The Sea Monster". She was part of the British alternative comedy
Alternative comedy
Alternative comedy is a term that originated in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era, and typically avoids relying on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt defines it as "comedy where the...

 movement, working in London alternative comedy clubs, and appearing initially on the Saturday Live television show.

Brand's early style involved her delivering jokes in a bored monotone, one line at a time, with pauses in between. It drew heavily from pop culture and the media, with many jokes containing references to well-known celebrities and public figures. With her Doc Marten boots, her large size, and her short hair, her image (and comedic material) remained the same for most of the 1980s and 1990s, inspired at least in part by radicalised feminism. Her appearance and material led to false rumours that she was a lesbian.
In 1993 she became a resident panellist, along with Tony Hawks
Tony Hawks
Antony Gordon Hawksworth, better known as Tony Hawks, is a British comedian and author.-Early life:Born in Brighton in 1960, Hawks was educated at Brighton Hove and Sussex Grammar School and Brighton College...

, on BBC monologue show The Brain Drain
The Brain Drain
The Brain Drain was a BBC comedy panel show that ran for 2 seasons in the early 1990s.Presented by Jimmy Mulville and featuring a panel of 4 performers , the show was essentially a comedy version of Question Time...

. Her transition into mainstream television continued when she obtained her own series on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

, Jo Brand Through the Cakehole, co-written with comedy writer Jim Miller
Jim Miller
Jim Miller may refer to:* Jim Miller , college football coach* Jim Miller , University of Richmond athletic director* Jim Miller , former Carlton and Dandenong full-forward...

, who was already her main stand-up writer. She has had several solo television series, and presented shows such as Jo Brand's Commercial Breakdown
Commercial Breakdown
Commercial Breakdown is a BBC/Celador light entertainment television programme which shows humorous television advertisements from around the world.-History:...

. She had a cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 appearance in the 1994 episode of Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...

, "New Best Friend", and also appeared on Star Spell
Star Spell
Star Spell was a BBC game show which put celebrities against each other in spelling related games, each one was subsequently eliminated until there was one Star Spell Champion...

, a spin off from Hard Spell
Hard Spell
Hard Spell is a United Kingdom televised spelling bee programme for children between the ages of eleven and fourteen, presented by Eamonn Holmes, with Nina Hossain reading the words. It was first broadcast on BBC One in late 2004...

in 2004. Her television success continued with guest appearances on shows such as Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...

and QI
QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...

. As a fan of Countdown
Countdown (game show)
Countdown is a British game show involving word and number puzzles. It is produced by ITV Studios and broadcast on Channel 4. It is presented by Jeff Stelling, assisted by Rachel Riley, with regular lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4, and over sixty-five...

, she achieved an ambition when she was invited to appear in the show's "Dictionary Corner" as the celebrity guest. She later became a friend of the host, Richard Whiteley
Richard Whiteley
John Richard Whiteley, OBE DL , usually known as Richard Whiteley, was an English broadcaster and journalist. He was famous for his twenty-three years as host of Countdown, a letters and numbers arrangement game show broadcast most weekdays on Channel 4...

, and after his death in 2005 attended his memorial service
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...

 at York Minster
York Minster
York Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by...

. She has since appeared on Countdown several more times.

In 2007, Brand narrated Laughter & Tears: The Les Dawson Story, a documentary tribute to Les Dawson
Les Dawson
Leslie "Les" Dawson was a popular English comedian remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.-Life and career:...

, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 in October 2007.

Brand took part in the first celebrity version of Comic Relief does Fame Academy
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy is a spin-off of the original Fame Academy show where celebrities sing as students of the Academy. The programme was launched in 2003 to help raise money for the charities supported by Comic Relief, with the final of the show occurring on Red Nose Day...

. In 2007, she appeared as a celebrity contestant on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice
Comic Relief Does The Apprentice
Comic Relief Does The Apprentice is a special celebrity version of British reality television series The Apprentice, produced to raise money for Comic Relief. The first edition aired in March 2007, and the second in March 2009. Five male celebrities and five female celebrities took part in the show...

, again to raise money for Comic Relief. In 2009 she participated in Let's Dance for Comic Relief
Let's Dance for Comic Relief
Let's Dance for Comic Relief is a British television programme shown on BBC One, featuring celebrities performing famous dance routines to raise money for the charity Comic Relief. The programme is currently presented by Steve Jones and Alex Jones, who replaced previous host Claudia Winkleman in...

, another Comic Relief fundraiser, dancing as Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...

, reaching the final. She has more recently been a judge on the show.

Brand appeared as a judge in the BBC2 series The Speaker
The Speaker
The Speaker is a 2009 British television series, broadcast on BBC Two. It is a talent show type series that aimed to find the best young speaker in the United Kingdom. The show is narrated by Jane Horrocks...

in April 2009. She offered advice, along with John Amaechi
John Amaechi
John Uzoma Ekwugha Amaechi OBE is a retired American-born British basketball player who currently works as a psychologist, educator and political activist in Europe and the United States....

 and Jeremy Stockwell, in the eight-part series charting the search for "Britain's Best Young Speaker".

Brand co-wrote and starred in the BBC Four sitcom Getting On
Getting On
Getting On is a satirical British sitcom based in an NHS hospital. It is written by its core cast, Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine, and Joanna Scanlan, and is directed by Peter Capaldi. It first aired in July 2009...

alongside Joanna Scanlan
Joanna Scanlan
Joanna Scanlan is a Welsh actress and television writer, best known for her roles in various British comedy series, such as The Thick of It, Doctors and Nurses, Getting On and Little Britain.-Getting On:...

 and Vicki Pepperdine
Vicki Pepperdine
Vicki Pepperdine is an English actress and comedian. She co-writes and stars in the BBC Four sitcom Getting On along with Jo Brand and Joanna Scanlan...

, for which she won the 2011 Best TV Comedy Actress BAFTA award. The series was directed by Peter Capaldi
Peter Capaldi
Peter Dougan Capaldi is an Academy Award and BAFTA award winning Scottish actor and film director. In 1995, his short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film...

 and is a gritty and realistic satire on the current state of the NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...

, set in an old person's ward.

In 2010, Brand took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala
Channel 4's Comedy Gala
Channel 4's Comedy Gala is a British stand-up comedy benefit show organised Channel 4 in aid of the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. The gig is filmed live at the O2 Arena in London, and then broadcast later by Channel 4...

, a benefit show
Benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...

 held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...

, filmed live at the O2 Arena
The O2 arena (London)
The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...

 in London on 30 March.

In 2011, Brand presented Jo Brand's Big Splash
Jo Brand's Big Splash
Jo Brand's Big Splash is a British television series produced by Doghouse Media and What Larks Productions for Dave. The show is part of Dave's investment into original comedy shows. Presented by comedian Jo Brand, it combines her stand-up comedy with various tasks involving water...

, a television programme where she performs a stand-up routine and visits people with a love of water.

She will be playing the Demon Dinner Lady in the 2011 British live-action 3D family comedy film Horrid Henry: The Movie
Horrid Henry the Movie
Horrid Henry: The Movie is a 3D family comedy film based on the fictional character Horrid Henry. The first British film for children to be shot in 3D, its UK release date was 29 July 2011...

.

Other work

In 2003, she was listed in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2004, Brand appeared in a special episode of What Not to Wear, where fashion gurus Trinny Woodall
Trinny Woodall
Trinny Woodall is an English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author. She was raised in a wealthy family and was privately educated...

 and Susannah Constantine
Susannah Constantine
Susannah Caroline Constantine is an English fashion journalist, advisor, television presenter, author and designer. Her second book, entitled What Not to Wear, has won her a prestigious British Book Award and sold 670,000 copies....

 gave her a makeover. In March 2006, Jo appeared on Parkinson
Parkinson (TV series)
Parkinson is a British television talk show that was presented by Sir Michael Parkinson. It was first shown on the BBC from 1971 to 2004, and on ITV from 2004 to 2007.-Background:...

with Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship. His portrayals of Christy Brown in My Left Foot and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood won Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and Screen Actors Guild as well as Golden Globe Awards for the latter...

 and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

. Brand is known to be a big fan of Crystal Palace Football Club
Crystal Palace F.C.
Crystal Palace Football Club are an English Football league club based in South Norwood, London. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where they have been based since 1924. The club currently competes in the second tier of English Football, The Championship.Crystal Palace was formed in...

, and has sponsored the match ball for games in the past.

Brand appeared on the 25 March 2007 episode of Play It Again
Play It Again
Play It Again is a documentary series on BBC One, featuring celebrities trying to learn to play musical instruments. The series is produced Diverse Production and started on 25 March 2007 and is narrated by Tamsin Greig.-1: Jo Brand, playing the organ.:...

where she was required to learn how to play the organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

 in just four months. This was in preparation to perform Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece of organ music attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. It is one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire, and has been used in a variety of popular media ranging from film, video games, to rock music, and ringtones...

 for an audience of 8,000 people at London's Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

 on the second largest pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

 in the United Kingdom. In order to practise her performance, she played at a church wedding, and accompanied dancers at Blackpool Tower
Blackpool Tower
Blackpool Tower Eye is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire in England which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. . Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it rises to 518 feet & 9 inches . The tower is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers...

. Prior to this, her only experiences with musical instruments had been childhood piano and violin lessons.

Books

Brand has written a number of commercially successful books:
  • A Load of Old Balls: Men in History (London: Simon & Schuster, 1994). ISBN 067171385X
  • A Load of Old Ball Crunchers: Women in History (London: Simon & Schuster, 1996). ISBN 0684816954
  • Mental (with Helen Griffin
    Helen Griffin
    Helen Griffin is a Welsh actress, playwright and screenwriter. She has appeared regularly in Welsh theatre and television and wrote and starred in the 2005 film Little White Lies...

    . HTV Sherman Plays series. Cardiff: Drama Association of Wales, 1996). ISBN 1898740410
  • Sorting Out Billie (novel. London: Review, 2004). ISBN 075532336x
  • It's Different for Girls (novel. London: Headline Review, 2005). ISBN 0755322290
  • The More You Ignore Me (novel. London: Headline Review, 2009). ISBN 0755322312
  • Look Back in Hunger. The Autobiography (London: Headline Review, 2009). ISBN 0755355253
  • Can't Stand Up For Sitting Down. The Autobiography – Part 2 (London: Headline Review, 2010). ISBN 9780755355266


Sorting Out Billie and The More You Ignore Me deal with socially dysfunctional behaviour and draw on her experience in psychiatric nursing. It's Different for Girls looks at growing up in a one-horse seaside town.

Personal life

Brand married Bernie Bourke, a psychiatric nurse, in 1997 in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

.
Brand delivered a guest lecture on the subject of psychiatric nursing
Psychiatric Nursing
Psychiatric Nursing is a 1958 documentary film directed by Lee R. Bobker. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature....

 for the University of Derby
University of Derby
The University of Derby is a university in the city of Derby, England. The main site is on Kedleston Road, Allestree in the north-west of Derby close to the A38 opposite Markeaton Park...

 Psychology Society in 1997 in return for a donation to Derby Rape Crisis. Also in 1997 she opened, at Lambeth Hospital in South London, the first major exhibition of The Adamson Collection since the death of Edward Adamson
Edward Adamson
Edward Adamson was a British artist and pioneer of Art Therapy, who has been called “the father of art therapy in Britain”.- Life and work :...

, the pioneer of Art Therapy, in 1996.

On July 17, 2007, Brand was awarded an honorary doctorate for her former work as a psychiatric nurse from the University of Glamorgan
University of Glamorgan
The University of Glamorgan is a university based in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales with campuses in Treforest, Glyntaff, Merthyr Tydfil, Tyn y Wern and Cardiff...

. Professor Donna Mead, Dean of the School of Health, Sport and Science at the University of Glamorgan
University of Glamorgan
The University of Glamorgan is a university based in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales with campuses in Treforest, Glyntaff, Merthyr Tydfil, Tyn y Wern and Cardiff...

 who read Brand up for the award commented, “Jo incorporates much of her experience working in the field of mental health into her current work as a comedian. This has increased awareness of the work done by nurses in the mental health field. She has also used her experiences of working with individuals with conditions such as Alzheimer’s to promote awareness of and raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society.”

In February 2009, Brand was among a group of British entertainers who wrote an open letter to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

of London in support of the Bahá'í leaders then on trial in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

.

Politics

Brand is a staunch supporter of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

. She is still a contributor to and supporter of the party in 2010. She is a patron of International Animal Rescue
International Animal Rescue
International Animal Rescue, also known as IAR, is an animal welfare non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom that comes to the aid of wild and domestic animals with hands-on rescue and rehabilitation. International Animal Rescue returns rehabilitated animals to the wild while also...

 and the Prader-Willi Syndrome
Prader-Willi syndrome
Prader–Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disorder in which seven genes on chromosome 15 are deleted or unexpressed on the paternal chromosome...

 Association, as well as the National Self Harm Network, otherwise known as NSHN, and London Nightline. She is the president of The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust. Brand introduced and spoke at the celebration of Michael Foot
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...

's life at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, on 8 November 2010.. She is also a Republican
Republicanism in the United Kingdom
Republicanism in the United Kingdom is the movement which seeks to remove the British monarchy and replace it with a republic that has a non-hereditary head of state...

.

Awards and nominations

  • British Comedy Award 2011: Best TV Comedy Actress
  • BAFTA: Best Female Performance in a Comedy Role.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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