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Sarah Kendall

Sarah Kendall
Born (1976-08-03) 3 August 1976 (age 48)
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)Comedian, actress
Known for
Spouse
(divorced)
Children2

Sarah Kendall (born 3 August 1976)[1][2] is an Australian comedian from Newcastle, New South Wales. She won the Raw Comedy competition in 1998 and appeared regularly on Australian television. She moved to the United Kingdom in 2000 at the age of 24.[3]

Early life

Kendall grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales and attended Merewether High School.[4] She moved on to Sydney University at the age of 18. She began her career in 1996 partaking in the annual 'Review' show. Of it she said: “It started at university where there was a stand-up competition which some of my friends said I should do but I was too scared to do it. I was a genuine coward about it all and that in itself started to bug me, so eventually I got up on stage. I hated every single minute of it and was sick beforehand. But that made me even more determined because I couldn't work out why my fear was so disproportionate to the thing I was doing. It was just me talking for five minutes and so what if I got booed off stage. After about seven or eight years I eventually got it under control.”[5]

Stand-up comedy

Kendall has performed solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 2003,[6] with her 2004 show being nominated for the Perrier award. [7] She has also performed in the Melbourne Comedy Festival since 2000.[8]

In February 2003 she was in Greenwich, London, performing at Up The Creek comedy club, alongside Jimmy Carr.[9]

Kendall talked about how she has reviewed her own comic response to a heckler who threatened her with sexual violence during a routine in an article in The Guardian on 2 August 2014. She said, "I built a routine around it – but looking back, I betrayed the seriousness of the incident". Kendall remarked that she dropped the routine because it started to sit uncomfortably with her.[10]

Television and radio

Kendall has been a "special guest" on the BBC Radio 2 comedy show Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections.

She was part of an all-female sketch comedy show called Beehive also starring Alice Lowe, Barunka O'Shaughnessy and Clare Thomson, which was aired on E4.[11]

She was a guest stand up comic on BBC Three's Russell Howard's Good News.

From 2010, she took the role of Libby McKenzie, an Australian character introduced in Series 6 of the BBC Radio 4 series Clare in the Community.

On 23 November 2012, Kendall appeared on BBC Radio 4's satirical news show The Now Show, and on 4 May 2015 appeared in The Vote Now Show, one of six election specials.[12]

Kendall appeared on the Dave TV series Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled.

She was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Quote... Unquote on 21 September 2015.[13]

In March 2017, her three-part series Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. A second volume of Sarah Kendall's Australian Trilogy was aired in August 2018.[14]

She has also appeared in Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in 2021, in which Herring took issue with an article that suggested she met her husband at the Edinburgh fringe, she revealed that they in fact met at a Melbourne Comedy festival. She was also featured in a Georg Jensen commercial.

She appeared in the season finale episode of the first season of Motherland, originally aired on BBC2, as a nanny.

In 2019, Kendall created, wrote and starred in the comedy TV series Frayed, renewed in 2021.[15]

Kendall was the winner of Series 11 of the comedy game show Taskmaster.[16][17]

Personal life

Kendall was married to Henry Naylor and has two children.[18]

She identifies as gay.[19]

Awards

Year Nominee / Work Award Result
2021 Frayed AACTA Awards - Best Comedy Performer Nominated
2020 Frayed BAFTA TV Awards - Best Female Comedy Performance Nominated
2018 Australian Trilogy Chortle Awards - Best Radio[20] Nominated
2017 A Day in October (Australian Trilogy) BBC Audio Drama Awards - Best Scripted Comedy Won
Australian Trilogy UK Writer's Guild - Best Scripted Comedy (Radio)[21] Won
2015 Sarah Kendall Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award – Best Comedy Show Nominated
2014 Touch Down Melbourne International Comedy Festival Piece of Wood Award Won
2007 My Very First Kidnapping ThreeWeeks Editor's Choice Awards[22] Won
2006 Sarah Kendall Time Out Comedy Award[citation needed] Nominated
2004 Sarah Kendall Perrier Award Nominated
2003 Sarah Kendall Herald Angels[citation needed] Won

Filmography

Acting
Year Title Role Notes
2008 Beehive Various characters Sketch series; 5 episodes (also writer)
2010 BBC Nought Product Designer 1 episode
2017 Motherland Lindsey Season 1, Episode 6: "The Caretaker"
2019– Frayed Sammy Cooper Main role; 2 seasons (also writer and producer)
2020 The Other One Kelly Season 1, Episodes 2 & 7 (also script editor on 3 episodes)
2024– Things You Should Have Done Sarah Gilbeaux Season 1, Episodes 5 & 6
Self appearances
Year Title Notes
1997 Headliners Unknown episode(s)
2000 Russell Gilbert Live Season 1, Episode 9
2000–2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala 5 events
2001 Rove Season 2, Episode 1
2001 The World Comedy Tour: Melbourne 2001 TV special
2001–2003 The Glass House 3 episodes
2007 The If.comedy Awards: A Comedy Cuts Special Awards ceremony
2011 Comedy Summit: The World's Ultimate Prankster TV special
2011 So This Is Christmas! TV special
2012 The Unbelievable Truth 2 episodes
2013 Tractor Monkeys 2 episodes
2014 Cracker Night TV gala
2015 Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled 1 episode
2015–2021 Richard Herring's interview podcasts Leicester Square Theatre Podcast; 3 episodes
2020 Spicks and Specks 1 episode
2021 Taskmaster 10 episodes
2021 Taskmaster: The Podcasts 2 episodes
2021 Question Team 1 episode
2021 Between the Covers 1 episode
2022 Would I Lie to You? 1 episode
2022 Guessable 1 episode

References

  1. ^ Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast - with Sarah Kendall #89 on YouTube.
  2. ^ "WILOSOPHY with Wil Anderson on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  3. ^ Dessau, Bruce (15 May 2018). "Sarah Kendall on small lies and being mistaken for Nicole Kidman". standard.co.uk. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Merewether High School - Creative Arts". Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  5. ^ "It's comedy catnip from Sarah Kendall". Gazette. 13 June 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  6. ^ Bennett, Steve. "Sarah Kendall : Reviews 2003 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  7. ^ "Perrier fizzes with female comic". 26 August 2004. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  8. ^ Sarah Kendall - 2000 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala, retrieved 29 February 2024
  9. ^ "Comedy listings until February 20". News Shopper. 14 February 2003. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  10. ^ Sarah Kendall (31 July 2014). "Sarah Kendall: the worst heckle I ever received – and what I did with it | Stage". theguardian.com. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  11. ^ "Girls just wanna have funny... : News 2008 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". Chortle. 21 July 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  12. ^ BBC Radio 4 - The Vote Now Show, Series 2, Episode 5
  13. ^ BBC Radio 4 - Quote... Unquote, 21/09/2015
  14. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy - Available now".
  15. ^ "Token Profile page". Excellence Through Guesswork. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  16. ^ Taskmaster Series 11 Cast Reveal
  17. ^ Seddon, Dan (20 May 2021). "Taskmaster announces series 11 champion". Digital Spy. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  18. ^ "Getting My Dad To Say I Love You with Chris Martin: Sarah Kendall on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  19. ^ "Crushed by Margaret Cabourn Smith: Sarah Kendall". UK Podcasts. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  20. ^ British Comedy Guide (7 February 2018). "Chortle Awards 2018 nominees". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  21. ^ British Comedy Guide (5 December 2017). "Writers' Guild Awards 2018 shortlists". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  22. ^ "ThreeWeeks Edinburgh Editor's Awards". Retrieved 15 June 2022.