Jennifer Saunders

One of the most influential women in British comedy, writer and actress Jennifer Saunders studied at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama where she met future comedy partner Dawn French. In 1980, they began performing comedy sketches at The Comic Strip Club and found themselves at the core of an emerging alternative comedy scene. Saunders made guest appearances in The Young Ones with her Comic Strip colleagues before going on to major success with sketch show, French & Saunders, and the landmark sitcom, Absolutely Fabulous.

In 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2004, she played the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2. She is married to her former Comic Strip cohort Adrian Edmondson, with whom she has three daughters — the youngest of which plays her daughter in Clatterford.