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Actor · Director · Writer

1958-07-06 · Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England · Female

53 series in the catalog

Jennifer Jane Saunders (born 6 July 1958) is an English comedian, actress, singer, impressionist, satirist and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with her best friend and comedy partner, Dawn French. With French, Saunders co-wrote and starred in their eponymous sketch show, French and Saunders and later received acclaim in the 1990s for writing and playing her character Edina Monsoon in her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. She received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2009 with French.

Early life

Jennifer Jane Saunders was born on 6 July 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England. Her mother, Barbara Jane (née Duminy), was a biology teacher, and her father, Robert Thomas Saunders, served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He reached the rank of group captain, and later worked for British Aerospace. Six months after her birth, Saunders' parents moved to Cyprus. Her family moved to Camberley, and then to Melksham when she was ten. She has three brothers: Tim, Peter, and Simon. As her father was in the armed forces during her childhood years, Saunders changed schools several times. She was educated from the age of five to 18 in boarding schools and then at St Paul's Girls' School, an independent school in west London. Her first year of secondary school was at a comprehensive school in Wiltshire. Her parents had wanted her to board at Stonar School. Her family moved to Cheshire in 1971 when her father left the RAF for Hawker Siddeley. At Northwich Grammar School For Girls she played in goal for the school hockey team. After school, she worked for a year in Italy as an au pair; one of her employers, Adriana Ivancich, was an inspiration for Saunder's later role in Absolutely Fabulous.

In 1977, Saunders received a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London on a drama teachers' course, where she met her future comedy partner, Dawn French. French and Saunders came from RAF backgrounds, and had grown up on the same base, even having had the same best friend, without ever meeting. The comic duo originally did not get on well, and as far as Saunders was concerned, French was a "cocky little upstart". The distrust was mutual: French considered Saunders snooty and uptight. French wanted to become a drama teacher, whereas Saunders loathed the idea and had not fully understood what the course was about; thus, she disliked French for being enthusiastic and confident about the course. Saunders was shocked to find that she was taking a course to become a teacher, as her mother had filled in the application form. Her mother was saddened when Saunders chose not to apply for an Oxbridge university education.

After the initial friction experienced during drama school, French and Saunders shared a flat together. French has remarked on Saunders' messy habits when sharing the house saying: "When we lived together in Chalk Farm, she had a room at the top of the house. We got broken into and the police said, 'Well, it is quite bad, but the worst is that room at the top.' And, of course, nobody had been in there." The two performed together after graduation, working the festival, cabaret, and stand-up circuits. They formed a double-act called The Menopause Sisters. Saunders described the act, which involved wearing tampons in their ears, as "cringeworthy". The manager of the club where they performed recalled, "They didn't seem to give a damn. There was no star quality about them at all."

Early career

French and Saunders would eventually come to public attention as members of the informal comedy collective The Comic Strip, part of the alternative comedy scene in the early 1980s. They answered a 1980 advert in The Stage newspaper looking for female comedians to perform at The Comic Strip, which had, until that point, only had male performers. When they walked into the audition, they were immediately told, "You're booked. When can you start?" They became continuing members of The Comic Strip, which included Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Peter Richardson, Nigel Planer, Pete Richens, Alexei Sayle and Robbie Coltrane.

The group performed at the Boulevard Theatre, above Soho's Raymond Revuebar, and gained a cult following, with visiting audience members including Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, and Robin Williams, who once joined in the performance. By the time French and Saunders became members of The Comic Strip, French was already working as a drama teacher, while Saunders was on the dole and spending much of her time in bed.

1980s and 1990s

The comedy group appeared on Channel 4's first night on air, in the first episode of The Comic Strip Presents: Five Go Mad In Dorset, broadcast on 2 November 1982. In the episodes "Bad News" and "More Bad News", Saunders plays a trashy rock journalist touring with the fictional heavy metal band, Bad News.

In 1985, Saunders starred in and co-wrote Girls on Top with French, Tracey Ullman, and Ruby Wax, which portrayed four eccentric women sharing a flat in London. Saunders also appeared in Ben Elton's Happy Families where she played various members of the same family, including all four Fuddle sisters in the six-episode BBC situation comedy. Saunders starred in a Comic Strip film called The Supergrass, a parody of slick 1980s police dramas, directed by Peter Richardson. Saunders played Meryl Streep playing Arthur Scargill's wife in Strike, a Comic Strip spoof on the 1984 miners' strike. She appeared twice as a guest on The Young Ones.

In 1987, she and French created French and Saunders, a popular sketch comedy series for the BBC which sporadically aired until 2007, often with long gaps between series. Saunders also appeared in Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball live benefit in 1989, along with Dawn French and others.

Saunders and French followed separate careers as well as irregularly maintaining their comedy sketch show. Saunders' biggest solo success has been Absolutely Fabulous, based largely on a 14-minute French & Saunders sketch called "Modern Mother and Daughter". Saunders and French were going to star together, but, just as the studio had been booked, French received a long-awaited phone call confirming an adoption agency had a baby for her to adopt.

Saunders proceeded to star in the comedy. The series, which she wrote and starred in as the irresponsible fashion PR agent Edina Monsoon alongside Joanna Lumley, who played Patsy Stone, brought her international acclaim and attention. The show ran for five full series, two telemovies, three special episodes, and a feature film over the course of 24 years from 1992 to 2016. The series is also known as Ab Fab and was broadcast in the United States on Comedy Central and BBC America, becoming cult viewing.

Saunders has appeared on the American sitcoms Roseanne, playing Edina Monsoon in the episode "Satan, Darling", and Friends as Andrea Waltham, the step-mother of Emily, Ross Geller's fiancée, in the episodes "The One After Ross Says Rachel" and "The One with Ross's Wedding". Although they share no scenes, Jennifer's Absolutely Fabulous co-star June Whitfield also appeared in The One With Ross's Wedding Part Two as the Walthams' housekeeper. In 1999, she appeared alongside French in Let Them Eat Cake.

2000s

Saunders wrote and starred in a comedy drama about a Women's Institute titled Jam & Jerusalem, also known as Clatterford in the United States. The first series aired in 2006, the second in 2008, and the third in 2009 on BBC One. The show starred David Mitchell, Sally Phillips, and Sue Johnston, as well as Dawn French and Joanna Lumley.

In 2007, Saunders and psychologist Tanya Byron wrote BBC Two's The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle about a neurotic daytime talk show host. The show ran for one series. Saunders played the eponymous character whose programme features crude headlines such as "Wife a slapper? Lie…