Jennifer Saunders

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Jennifer Jane Saunders was born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire (England), on the 6th July 1958.
Daughter of a RAF member and a Biology teacher, Jennifer and her 3 brothers moved various times with her family due to her father’s job.

After finishing High School, Jennifer failed to get into University (screwing up her exams) because she was “too shy”. She then spent a year in Italy.

Back in England, 1977, Jennifer’s mother enrolled her in the Central School of Speech and Drama, in a teaching course, hoping it would give Jennifer a more stable future. While in College, Jennifer met Dawn French. None of them liked each other at first. Dawn had gone to drama classes as a child and thought Jennifer was snooty, aloof and posh. However, they grew up on each other and eventually shared a flat with some other students. That was the beginning of one of the best and most enduring partnerships of the entertainment History.

As “The Menopause Sisters”, Jennifer and Dawn would entertain their flatmates, but only later on, they would jump to the showbiz industry.

After college, Jen and Dawn taught for a while, Jennifer quitting after a short period of time. According to Dawn, Jennifer then would spend most of her time doing crossword puzzles and drinking champagne at home. And probably while doing some crossword puzzles, Jennifer found an ad on a newspaper asking for a female double-act in a comedy club, The Comedy Store (a quite doubtful club, once it also was a strip bar).

Jennifer and Dawn had an audience and not much after, they were an established stand-up comedy duo. Their dressing room was right next to another very known double act: Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. Dawn would give classes in the morning and, in the afternoon the girls would meet to write sketches for the night. And it went on like that for about a year or two, until Peter Richardson founded The Comic Strip, a non-sexist, non-racist comedy show for the very new Channel 4.

As they were “the first living beings with boobs walking through the door”, Jennifer and Dawn applied and got a part in the group, alongside Rik Mayall & Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer & Peter Richardson (amongst others). Their first film, Five Go Mad in Dorset, was a hit in Channel 4’s opening night, catapulting the group to fame. More episodes followed (War, Bad News Tour, Summer School, Five Go Mad on Mescalin,…) and soon they were said to be the most impressive young talents of the UK.

While the boys went and got themselves a new series, smash hit The Young Ones (that also had guest appearances by the girls), French & Saunders teamed up with Ruby Wax and replied to them with Girls On Top.

In 1984, The Comic Strip presents… The Supergrass, their first full length movie, was a hit.
After years bumping into each other in the comedy circuits, Jennifer and Adrian got a bit closer, and married on May 11th, 1985. In January 1986, their first daughter, Ella, was born.
The Comic Strip went on with more films (Private Enterprise, The Strike, More Bad News,…).

In 1987 (June), Jennifer and Ade’s second daughter, Beattie, was born, and in that same year French & Saunders had their own show on the BBC. Their success was so immediate and so great, that French & Saunders were almost the only comedy faces on TV for a couple of years. They were most known for their brilliant parodies of movies (Misery, The Silence of the Lambs, Gone With The Wind, Kill Bill,…), and singers/ bands (The Corrs, Bjork, The Poo Stripes, The Raspberries,…).

While Ade and Rik did Bottom, Jennifer and Dawn went on a Live Tour throughout the UK.
In October 1990, Jennifer and Ade’s third daughter, Freya, was born.

In 1992, Dawn and husband Lenny Henry adopted a baby girl (Billie) and were out of the limelight for a couple of years. Jennifer had to cover for Dawn, and so Absolutely Fabulous was born. The idea, which had come from a French & Saunders sketch about a modern mother, transformed into a highly acclaimed and internationally famous sitcom, with Jennifer as the mother (Edina), Julia Sawalha as the daughter (Saffy) and Joanna Lumley as the junkie best friend (Patsy). Eddy and Patsy would become the icons of the ladette culture. The show won innumerous awards including BAFTAs and Emmys.

French & Saunders would reunite a few times along the years to make more series of sketches and Season Specials.
In 1998, Jennifer and her Comic Strip co-stars reunited for another film, Four Men in a Car.
In 1999, Jennifer and Dawn co-starred in historical sitcom Let Them Eat Cake, poorly accepted by the critics but, according to the audience, a hilarious show, and Jennifer had a role in the rom-com Fanny and Elvis.
In the new Millenium, year 2000, French & Saunders went on Tour once more, receiving standing ovations wherever they went.
In 1996 Jennifer had said that Absolutely Fabulous was over, but in 2001, she brought it back with a new series.
In 2004 Jennifer would become internationally known as a fantastic singer with her rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s "Holding Out For A Hero" (disco version) in the blockbuster hit Shrek 2. In the following years Jennifer would write the final episode of Absolutely Fabulous (Christmas 2005), another F&S Series, starr in L’entente Cordiale (2006) and pen a new “ensemble” series, Jam & Jerusalem/ Clatterford (2006).
In 2007, Jennifer will have her 20th anniversary with Dawn as French & Saunders (with a special series, and a Live Tour planned for 2008), a new, and very anticipated series, The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, and Jam & Jerusalem II.

Apart from all this, Jennifer has worked for Comic Relief, a sort of celebrity association of charity to raise money and help the African countries. She appeared in sketches, parodies (Titanic, Harry Potter and The ChamberPot of Azerbaijan) and some other events. In 2005, her husband, Adrian Edmondson was one of the contestants in Comic Relief does Fame Academy and an entertainment excellence with his, rather peculiar, version of “Can’t take my eyes off you”.

Jennifer and Adrian own a production company called Mr. & Mrs. Monsoon Ltd.