Sue Perkins

Infobox Comedian
name = Sue Perkins


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birth_name = Susan Elizabeth Perkins
birth_date = birth date and age|1969|09|22|df=y
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flagicon|England East Dulwich, London,England
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genre = Comedy
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notable_work = "Mel and Sue"


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Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born 22 September 1969 in East Dulwich, London), more commonly known as Sue Perkins, is an English radio and television presenter, actress, and writer.citation |title=Hidden passions |first=Natalie |last=Hanman |date=August 14, 2006 |periodical=The Guardian |accessdate=2007-12-31 |url=http://jobsadvice.guardian.co.uk/officehours/story/0,,1843792,00.html ]

Mel and Sue

Perkins is best known for her collaborations, especially presenting comedy material with Mel Giedroyc. As "Mel and Sue" the duo were short-listed for the Daily Express Best Newcomers Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993. After a few years writing for French & Saunders they hosted a lunchtime show on Channel 4 called "Light Lunch", and an early evening version, "Late Lunch". The two met whilst students at Cambridge, where Perkins was a student at New Hall, and were both members of the long established comedy performance troupe, the Footlights.

Television

Perkins has also been a presenter on Channel 4's "" and appeared in "Celebrity Big Brother" during 2002 in aid of a number of charities. During the series she had some notable dancing moments with eventual winner Mark Owen of Take That. Over the years she has made numerous appearances on BBC TV shows "Have I Got News for You", "Mock the Week", "Room 101", "Celebrity Weakest Link", "Question Time" and "Newsnight"; she has often joked that the BBC pay her a regular wage for "blabbering on random shows".

Perkins hosted "Good Evening, Rockall" (second series), a short-lived news orientated panel game shown on BBC Choice. She appeared on the 7/10 and 9/10 episodes of BBC Four's 2006 language quiz show "Never Mind the Full Stops". She was also a team captain on ITV's "Win, Lose or Draw Late", appeared on "Celebrity Masterchef" in 2006 and performed in early 2007 on "Celebrity Poker".

In April 2007 she participated in "Edwardian Supersize Me" for BBC with food critic Giles Coren, spending a week eating the equivalent of a wealthy Edwardian couple's food, whilst wearing a corset. The duo returned, in May 2008, with a series called "The Supersizers Go..." where they live, for a week, eating food based upon certain diets. The first programme saw them survive for a week on WWII rations, the second covers the English Restoration period, the third the Victorian period, the fourth the Seventies, the fifth the Elizabethan period and the sixth the Regency period.

Perkins was a guest on "News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald", aired on 15 July 2007, along with regular Reginald D. Hunter and Marcus Brigstocke.

In August and September 2008, Sue Perkins appeared in the reality TV talent show series "Maestro" on BBC Two. During the series, a group of eight celebrities attempted (until eliminated) to learn to conduct orchestral, choral and operatic music. Perkins won the competition and conducted the orchestra at "Proms in the Park", part of the BBC's "Last Night of the Proms". Sue's "Maestro" section of the programme was broadcast live from Hyde Park, London on 13 September 2008, in front of a crowd of 40,000.Fact|date=September 2008 During the programme, Sue played three pieces and was accompanied during two of them by Lesley Garrett.cite press release
title = Eight passionate amateurs bid to become BBC Two's Maestro
publisher = BBC
date = 2008-05-23

Perkins won the British TV show Maestro in September 2008.
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/05_may/23/maestro.shtml
accessdate = 2008-05-24]

Also in 2008 Perkins narrated the series "....and Proud" on Virgin 1.

Currently, Sue Perkins is filming more episodes of the 'Supersizers GO...' with Giles Coren.

Radio

Perkins is also an occasional panel member of Radio 4's "The News Quiz" and has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 2's "It's Been a Bad Week". She occasionally appears as a panelist on another popular Radio 4 show, "Just a Minute".

She was the chair of BBC Radio 4's "The 99p Challenge" until the show finished in 2004. Perkins appeared every day in the last half hour of Mark Radcliffe's afternoon radio show on BBC Radio 2, when he sat in for Steve Wright.

Since 2006 Perkins has been a panelist on a new Radio 4 show, "The Personality Test", a quiz show about the host, presented by a different host each week. Past hosts include Gyles Brandreth and Rick Wakeman, and other panelists include Robin Ince, Lucy Porter, and Will Smith.

While presenting a Radio 4 documentary on the Lake District's competition "The World's Biggest Liar", she rather controversially ended up winning it. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/6159642.stm Comedienne crowned biggest liar] , BBC News Online, Cumbria, 17 November 2006, retrieved 22 June 2008]

Edinburgh Festival appearances

Perkins has performed two stand-up comedy solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, "Spectacle Wearer Of The Year 2006" in 2005 and "The Disappointing Second Show" in 2006.

Personal life

Perkins maternal grandmother was Jewish, but Perkins herself was brought up as a Catholic, but now considers herself 'not religious'. Perkins went to the independent Croham Hurst School in Croydon with the "BBC Breakfast News" presenter Susanna Reid. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_4710000/newsid_4714300?redirect=4714375.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&nbram=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&asb=1 BBC Breakfast interview with Sue Perkins on 25 Jul 2005] ]

Perkins currently lives in Penzance, Cornwall. She has been a reluctantly open lesbian since 2002, when ex-girlfriend Rhona Cameron outed her during the latter's stint on ITV's "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!".citation |title=Thank you, reality TV |first=Jenny |last=White |date=November 7, 2003 |accessdate=2007-12-31 |periodical=The Guardian |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,3604,1079618,00.html ]

References

External links

*
* [http://www.myspace.com/sueperkins Official MySpace]
* [http://www.melandsue.co.uk/ Official Mel and Sue website] (has not been updated in many years)