Deborah Frances-White

Deborah Frances-White
Born Brisbane, Australia
Medium Stand-up, improvisation
Nationality British, Australian
Years active 2007–present
Genres Observational humour, Self-help, storytelling
Subject(s) Sexism, religion
Website www.deborahfrances-white.com

Deborah Frances-White is a comedian and writer who regularly delivers seminars to women in business on subjects including charisma, diversity and inclusion.[1] She has both British and Australian citizenship.[2]

Early life

Deborah was born in Australia and adopted at ten days old.[3] She moved to the UK and attended Oxford University and founded improv theatre company The Spontaneity Shop of which she is a director.[4]

Religion

Deborah became a Jehovah's Witness while still a teenager. Her years in the religion and how she left it were the focus of her 2012 Edinburgh Fringe stand-up comedy show and two of the episodes of her BBC Radio 4 show Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice.[5][6]

Career

After developing a number of improvisation formats at The Spontaneity Shop (including the improvised romantic comedy DreamDate which had a pilot made for ITV[7]) Deborah turned to stand-up comedy. Her first significant solo show was How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You which she performed at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007[8] and at The Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2008[9] where she also hosted The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow.[10]

Deborah's recent shows have been more personal. Cult Following (2012) dealt with her experiences as a teenage Jehovah's Witness,[11] Half a Can of Worms (2013) was about tracking down her biological family[12] and Friend of a Friend of Dorothy (2015) was about feminism, sexism and homophobia.[13]

Deborah has continued to develop new improvisation formats. Voices in Your Head is a show which allows comedians, improvisers and actors to create comedy characters while the audience watches. Guests have included Phill Jupitus, Sara Pascoe, Russell Tovey, Mike McShane, Hannibal Buress and others.[14] In 2015 she created The Beau Zeaux a long-form improvised comedy featuring a rotating cast including Marcus Brigstocke, Thom Tuck, Rachel Parris, Brendan Murphy, Ed Coleman, Milly Thomas and Pippa Evans.[15] Guests have included Russell Tovey[16] and Dan Starkey.

Her BBC Radio 4 series Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice was first broadcast in spring 2015[5] and featured stories about her adoption, green card marriage, and quest to find her biological family. The episodes were titled "Half a Can of Worms", "Cult Following", "Visa Issues" and "Who's Your Daddy"? In January 2016, The Writers Guild of Great Britain awarded Deborah Best Radio Comedy at their annual ceremony.[17] A second series was first broadcast in autumn 2016.[18]

She is the co-host with Sofie Hagen of the podcast The Guilty Feminist.

Corporate work

Deborah also regularly appears at corporate events speaking about confidence, charisma, diversity and sexism.[19] Her TEDx talk on Charisma vs Stage-Fright[20] was cited by James Caan as the secret of his presenting skills.[21]

Writing

Deborah is also a screenwriter with commissions from Fox Searchlight, Redwave Films, FremantleMedia, ITV Studios, the BBC and Channel 4.[22] With her writing partner Philippa Waller, she contributed an episode of Young Dracula in 2014.[23] She has co-written two books: The Improv Handbook with Tom Salinsky[24] and Off the Mic with Marsha Shandur[25] both published by Bloomsbury. Deborah writes for Standard Issue Magazine.[26]

References

  1. ↑ Kelley, Trista (1 June 2012). "Barclays Books Comedian to Harness Female Bankers' Secret Power". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Deborah Frances-White Rolls The Dice Episode Guide". Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  3. ↑ "Deborah Frances-White.com". Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "About The Spontaneity Shop". The Spontaneity Shop. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice (Series 1)". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  6. ↑ "Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice (Series 2)". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  7. ↑ Deans, Jason (27 October 2004), "ITV pilots improvised dating show", The Guardian, London
  8. ↑ Bennett, Steve (27 April 2008). "Deborah Frances-White: How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep with You". Chortle. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  9. ↑ Kent, Melissa (23 March 2008), "Venus and Mars, bah! Dating a man is easy", The Age, Melbourne
  10. ↑ http://www.bloomsbury.com/author/deborah-frances-white "Deborah Frances-White". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  11. ↑ Richardson, Jay (21 August 2012), "Comedy review: Deborah Frances-White: Cult Following, Assembly Roxy", The Scotsman, Edinburgh
  12. ↑ Bijleveld, Celine (20 September 2013), "I tracked down my biological family online: 'It was like a treasure hunt'", The Guardian, London
  13. ↑ "Friend of a Friend of Dorothy". EdFringe.com. 29 August 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Voices In Your Head". Soho Theatre. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "The Beau Zeaux". So Television. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "The Beau Zeaux". Etcetera Theatre. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "Writers Guild Award Winners". Writers Guild of Great Britain. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  18. ↑ "Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice: "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" Series 2". BBC Radio 4. 7 October 2016.
  19. ↑ "Deborah Frances-White Live in the West End!". 21 January 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  20. ↑ "TedxTalks". Charisma versus Stage Fright. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  21. ↑ Caan, James (8 October 2015). "Wonder where I got my presenting skills from?". Twitter. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  22. ↑ Putt, Sara. "Deborah Frances-White". Sara Putt. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  23. ↑ "Young Dracula: Full House". IMDB. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  24. ↑ "The Improv Handbook". Amazon. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  25. ↑ "Off the Mic: The World's Best Stand-Up Comedians Get Serious About Comedy". Amazon. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  26. ↑ "Standard Issue Magazine". Standard Issue. Retrieved 14 October 2015.

External links

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