- Born
- Birth nameJennifer Jane Saunders
- Nickname
- Jen
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Jennifer Saunders was born July 6, 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, to Jane, a biology teacher, and Robert Thomas Saunders, an RAF pilot. She attended Central School of Speech and Drama where she met her comedy partner Dawn French. Like many of the early 80s groundbreaking "alternative" comedians she began her career as comedienne/actress/writer with Dawn French at "The Comedy Store" in London, where she met fellow comedians Adrian Edmondson (later her husband), Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle and Peter Richardson, who later opened his own club, "The Comic Strip", where these comedians quickly formed a regular format.
The Comic Strip team were transferred to television screens with great success as they all starred alongside each other in The Comic Strip Presents (1982). After The Comic Strip she starred in a few episodes of The Young Ones (1982), Girls on Top (1985) and Happy Families (1985). Afterwards she and Dawn French wrote a TV show of their own, French and Saunders (1987), which was an immense success due to the double act's genius writing, brilliant acting performances and hilarious spoofs of world famous blockbusters and bands.
It was in one of the episodes of "French and Saunders" that the audience had the pleasure of watching a sketch about an uptight daughter and a crazy, neurotic mother that became a comedy classic sitcom. When the BBC next asked Saunders to write something, she just couldn't come up with any ideas, so she decided to expand on that sketch, making it more outrageous and therefore funnier - Absolutely Fabulous (1992) was born.
Perhaps by coincidence Saunders had created one of the most loved, funny, and creative TV Shows in BBC history. Three series were made, in 1995 the show was put on hold until Saunders began writing again and came back with a fourth series in 2001. She is always ready for charity as well, she has been doing "Comic Relief" with a lot of her comedy companions ever since 1986. Jennifer Saunders, one of the most loved TV faces in Britain, will hit the screens with her fifth series of Absolutely Fabulous in 2003.
- IMDb mini biography by: LC
- SpouseAdrian Edmondson(May 11, 1985 - present) (3 children)
- Children
- ParentsRobert Thomas SaundersJane Saunders
- Often performs alongside Dawn French
- Originally auditioned for the voice-part of Ursula in The Little Mermaid (1989) by recording an audio tape, but she was turned down for the part. However, Steven Spielberg heard the tape many years later and by his request, she was cast as the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2 (2004).
- Performed all her own singing in Shrek 2 (2004).
- Is now in remission after secretly battling Breast Cancer since October 2009.
- The Eurythmics' songs "Jennifer", (from the album "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This"), and "Adrian" (from the album "Be Yourself Tonight") are dedicated to her and her husband.
- The name of her character, Edina Monsoon, on Absolutely Fabulous (1992) is a play on the name "Eddie Monsoon," which in turn is a play on her husband, Adrian Edmondson's surname that he has used as a character name in comedy performances.
- When I was a child, a lot of my time was spent in Scotland because my mother's Scottish, and we used to go up to Ayrshire and visit relations in a place called Dalry.
- We were watching the first series recently, and it has a charm, a kind of amateur charm. At that point we didn't involve ourselves technically at all - we just messed about and told our jokes - and it looks a bit like that.
- We had this party in New York, and there were a lot of gay men there dressed up as the characters. I showed up just looking like myself, but it was a real case of shame. They looked so fantastic. We could never quite live up to it.
- They have become part of us in that if we get dressed up as them, we don't actually have to have a script. You can just become them. You just become nervy.
- The reason they keep it so tight is that no one liked them, so that without each other, actually, they couldn't exist. They support each other. They support their flaws and everything else.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
