We announced our mentor programme as part of our 2016 Funny Women Awards, our six finalists were mentored by some of the best women in comedy today. This year as a nod to our charity partners UN Women HeForShe Campaign, we have invited two men to join two women from the comedy industry as mentors for our 2017 finalists!
Gemma Whelan
British actress and comedian Gemma Whelan is known for her varied body of work. Gemma was last seen in critically acclaimed dark comedy The End of the F***ing World on Channel 4 and Netflix opposite Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden.
Last year Gemma reprised the role of Yara Greyjoy in series seven of Game of Thrones on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK. In 2016 Gemma was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award (SAG) with her fellow Game of Thrones cast members, for ‘Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series’.
As a comedian Gemma created and often performs as character Chastity Butterworth. Gemma brought the character to series three of Live at the Electric for BBC 3 and in 2014 recorded a pilot chat show for BBC Radio 4 called The Chastity Butterworth Show. This was followed up by an episode of the comedy chat show on BBC Radio 4 in 2017. In 2010 Gemma won a Funny Women Variety Award for her stand up comedy.
Arnab Chanda
Arnab Chanda is a Comedy Writer, Actor, and Director, who was an in-house Producer at BBC Radio Comedy (Radio 4) for three years, and has also been a writer for Simon Amstell on Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC), How Not To Live Your Life (BBC), and Comedy Cuts (ITV), and the Head Writer for the MTV Int’l show Celebrity Bites and the MTV European Music Awards. He was a 2007 Chortle Best Newcomer Nominee and performed stand-up on the Comedy Central UK shows The World Stands Up, Edinburgh & Beyond, and Live at The Comedy Store, and the BBC shows Russell Howard’s Good News, and The Stephen K Amos Show, and at the Edinburgh Festival, The Mighty Boosh Festival, and Leeds Festival. He was also an actor in the BAFTA nominated film Black Pond, Ash Attalla’s ITV series Trinity, Julia Davis’s Sky Atlantic series Hunderby, the E4 series of Cardinal Burns, and E4’s Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy. He has made various short films which have been selected for the London Short Film Festival and as Vimeo “Staff Picks”, and he is also a guest columnist for The Guardian.
Phil Nichol
Phil Nichol is an award-winning Canadian comedian, singer-songwriter and actor. Phil began the new material night Old Rope, now produced by 2016 Funny Women Awards mentor Tiff Stevenson. Phil played a member of the production team in Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive and has appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks and The Graham Norton Show. He also played Terry Gilliam in the BBC adaptation of Holy Flying Circus and is currently starring as Hugo in the West End show Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
He begins his solo comedy tour Your Wrong in September –
mickperrin.com/tours/nichol-your-wrong/
Sindhu Vee
Since becoming a finalist in the 2013 Funny Women Awards Sindhu Vee has gone from strength to strength, making the BBC New Comedy Award finals in 2016, placing as runner-up in the Leicester Mercury New Comedian of the Year 2017 and the 2017 NATYS. Sindhu also hosts BBC podcast Comedy of the Week and has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Museum of Curiosity, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and The Now Show.
The 2017 Funny Women Awards Charity Final, hosted by Jan Ravens is on 12th March at the Duchess Theatre. For tickets click here!
