Actor

1977-02-25 · United Kingdom · Female

14 series in the catalog

Ingrid Oliver (born 25 February 1977) is a British actress and comedian, and one half of the comic double act Watson & Oliver. She played Petronella Osgood, a supporting character in the BBC television series Doctor Who.

Career

Oliver and her comedy partner Lorna Watson met at Tiffin Girls' School in Kingston upon Thames. She then read modern languages at New College, Oxford. In September 2005, Watson and Oliver performed their first show together at the Canal Cafe Theatre in London. They took sell-out shows to Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 and 2007.

Oliver has performed in various radio and television programmes, including Doc Martin, The Penny Dreadfuls' radio series The Penny Dreadfuls Present... The Brothers Faversham and the radio series Another Case of Milton Jones. She played the part of Natalie in Peep Show on Channel 4.

She appears in the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging as Miss Stamp, and in early 2009 could be seen in Channel 4's sitcom Plus One.

In 2010, Oliver played Mimi Throckmorton in Material Girl on BBC One, alongside Lenora Crichlow and Dervla Kirwan. In 2012, she appeared on Let's Dance For Sport Relief with comedy partner Lorna Watson, dancing Boléro, famously used by Torvill and Dean. The following year, she appeared in the first episode of The Great Comic Relief Bake Off and was named as 'Star Baker'. The same year, she appeared in the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who, "The Day of the Doctor", as Petronella Osgood. She reprised the role in the episodes "Death in Heaven", "The Zygon Invasion", and "The Zygon Inversion"; UNIT, an audio drama spinoff series produced by Big Finish Productions; and Doctor Who: Redacted, a BBC radio drama spin-off series.

In 2024, Oliver played a supporting role in Sweetpea on Sky Atlantic.

In 2025, Oliver was one of the judges of the 'Published Novel' category of the Comedy Women in Print Prize.

Personal life

Oliver was born to a German father and English mother. Her grandfather, Eric Gideon, was a D-Day veteran who died in 2017, shortly after receiving the Légion d'Honneur for his service to France during the war. Her mother is former Conservative MP Jo Gideon, who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent Central in 2019. Oliver has British and German nationality.

She began a relationship with Richard Osman in 2020; they became engaged in May 2022 and married in December 2022. They met when she was a contestant on TV celebrity quiz show Richard Osman's House of Games.