What a night we had! Last week we celebrated the return of the annual Funny Women Awards at the Comedy Store, where our journey began way back in 2003. We’ve missed you!
The very first Funny Women Awards attracted 70 entries for one award, until fast forward to 2023 when we accepted nearly 2,000 entries and nominations for five awards. We’ve had a year off to recalibrate and find new ways to make this important competition sustainable for the future.
At the launch we were delighted to announce our new main sponsor: the BBC Studios’ digital comedy channel Funny Parts, which enables us to continue supporting and developing the best and newest female and non-binary comedy talent. Our partnership will bring together icons of British comedy with brand new comedy performers, writers and creators in an exciting collaboration featuring live shows, online content and social media.
The show was hosted by Kerry Godliman who reached the final of the very first Funny Women Awards in 2003. She has since hosted the Awards twice and it’s an honour to have her back in the driving seat.
As a comedian and actor, her work ranges from her own radio sitcom to Live at the Apollo, from the National Theatre to BBC One’s Our Girl to Ricky Gervais’ Derek and After Life. Kerry’s down-to-earth observations about life, family and laziness are always popular with our audiences, and her hosting style reminded us why she is a regular on panel shows like Mock the Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats.
The show opened with Shazia Mirza, the award winning up comedian and writer who made her debut with us in the first ever Funny Women event way back in 2002. She has performed with Funny Women regularly ever since.
Shazia’s show Coconut was nominated for ‘Best Stand Up Tour’ in Channel 4’s National Comedy Awards and with so many memorable TV appearances in endurance related formats like Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls (C4), Celebs In Solitary (C5) and Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins (C4), Shazia really has staying power.
Next on stage was Soph Galustan, Funny Women Awards 2023 semi-finalist and Content Creator Top 3 who’s debut standup show Her Mammas sold out at London’s Soho Theatre.
Soph is a Mancunian comedy writer-performer with Armenian heritage who stars as ‘Julia’ in the Channel 4 comedy Everyone Else Burns. She also features in the BAFTA nominated British romantic comedy film Rye Lane, wrote and starred in Peck ‘Eds a comedy series she created as part of the BBC’s Threesomes strand and was also in the writers’ room for BBC comedy Pru, now also streaming on Netflix.
Dead pan Hannah Platt came to the stage and showed us why she was a runner up in the 2023 Stage Award.
Her sell-out debut show Defence Mechanism won her a nomination for last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards ISH Best Newcomer and earned her multiple four and five star reviews. She has recently filmed for Comedy Central live, has written and starred in her own short for BBC Three and written for numerous BBC Radio 4 shows.
We were delighted that Sophie McCartney, aka Tired and Tested, took a break from her sell out tour to be with us. She won our award for Best Web Series in 2020 which has now been rebranded as the Content Creator Award.
Liverpool-born mum of three, triple-threat Sophie is a stand-up comedian, podcaster and bestselling author who takes no hostages when it comes to entertaining her live audiences. In 2023, Sophie announced her first UK tour with Live Nation, which sold out within 24 hours, the fastest selling debut tour for a female comedian ever. Sophie is now on her biggest stand-up tour to date, One Foot in the Rave, in theatres across UK and Ireland.
A complete contrast came along next in the curiously long-armed form of Lorna Rose Treen, the first and only winner of two Funny Women Awards in the same year, Stage and Comedy Shorts 2022.
A character-based comedian, writer, actor and improviser, Lorna’s sell-out Edinburgh Fringe debut Skin Pigeon in 2023, went on to have two sell-out runs at the Soho Theatre in London. She has since starred in her self-written BBC Radio 4 comedy series Time of the Week on BBC Radio 4, a surreal parody of women’s news and current affairs shows. She has an enormous following on Instagram, and TikTok, and her viral videos regularly attract millions of views.
Hayley Morris winner of the Content Creator Award in 2021 came on to introduce her short film, Love & Loss, which illustrated why she has eight million followers across her social media platforms. An exceptional actor and writer Hayley uses her talent to tackle taboo topics and champion feminist themes.
Me vs Brain, the inner monologue of Hayley’s body parts is the top-performing format on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, generating views of up to 20 million per video. Her book, Me vs Brain, an Overthinker’s Guide to Life was Penguin’s most pre-ordered non-fiction for 2023 and a Sunday Times Bestseller. Hayley is busy developing her sitcoms behind the scenes and we can’t wait to see them!
Athena Kugblenu is always a welcome addition to a Funny Women line-up. She is a hugely talented stand-up comedian and writer who has represented Funny Women at the Marketing Society Awards and facilitated several online workshops and discussions for the wider Funny Women Community.
Athena was a member of the BBC Comedy Room 2019/20 and recipient of the BBC Felix Dexter Bursary in 2020. A BBC New Comedian of the Year finalist, her material is intelligent, edgy, thought-provoking and funny, of course. Her debut solo show, KMT, played the Edinburgh Fringe to four and five star reviews, as did her show Follow the Leader in 2018.
Kate Cheka left us in no doubt about why she won the coveted Funny Women Stage Award in 2023 with her pin sharp, and beguiling observations, for the penultimate performance of the show. She started comedy to spite an ex who said ‘I thought you were more fun’ and has had a lot of fun at their expense since!
Kate began performing comedy in Berlin where she organised and hosted a femme-identifying open mic and a women of colour showcase. Other awards nominations have stacked up including Chortle Best Newcomer 2024, BBC New Comedy Awards regional finalist 2022, finalist Berlin New Stand-up Award 2019 and BBC Radio 4 New Comedy Award 2019. She was a Funny Women Awards semi-finalist in both 2021 and 2022 before going on to take the top prize.
The top spot was left to Harriet Kemsley, award winning comedian, writer and actress currently to be seen on Amazon Prime’s flagship panel show, Last One Laughing. Her hapless persona belies true grit as a performer who has been racking up the television credits over the last few years.
Harriet is a recurring guest on iconic panel shows like 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and 8 Out of 10 Cats and her other credits include hosting the BBC Radio 4 Comedy Club, The Radio 1 Comedy Lounge, and BBC3’s Comedy Marathon. Her award-winning credentials include the Leicester Mercury New Act of the Year finalist, Funny’s Funny winner, Up The Creek’s New Act of the Year winner and Leicester Square New Act of the Year finalist. Her set was a fitting finale to a showcase of award-winning comedy.
All of the above performers, along with Funny Women founder, Lynne Parker, were captured on the red carpet for an interview with BBC Studios Funny Parts Creator in Residence Adéṣayọ̀ Talabi (Simply Sayo).
Sayo is a writer, poet, award-winning journalist, and presenter whose creativity and unique voice have made her a powerhouse in contemporary storytelling. With over 950k followers and appearances across TV, radio, and cinema, Sayo is working with BBC Studios Digital Division across the Funny Parts comedy brand.
To catch all the action from the launch of the 2025 Funny Women Awards visit Funny Parts here.
