Katie Cariad Lloyd (born 21 August 1982) is a British comedian, actress, writer, and podcaster. She is a member of the improvisational comedy group

Austentatious Austentatious (An Improvised Jane Austen Novel) is a long-form improvised comedy show, in the style of a Jane Austen novel, where each show is improvised by a six-strong cast, based on a title suggested by a member of the audience. Beginning i ...

, the host and creator of '' Griefcast'', and an improv teacher. Lloyd was nominated in 2011 for Best Newcomer at the Fosters

Edinburgh Comedy Awards The Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Establ ...

for her debut solo show, ''Lady Cariad's Characters''. She also won the Edtwinge award for most positively tweeted-about show during the Fringe. Lloyd's podcast, ''Griefcast'' has won several awards, including best Entertainment Podcast and Podcast of the Year at the British Podcast Awards and an ARIA Award for Best Podcast. In November 2023, it was announced that Lloyd signed a five-book deal with Hachette Children's Group.

Personal life

Lloyd was born in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

. She is of Welsh descent on her father's side. He died of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

in 1998, aged 44, when she was 15. Lloyd has an older

brother A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used ende ...

; she is four years younger than him. She studied

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

, where she first met her friend and fellow comedian Sara Pascoe. Lloyd worked with Pascoe as a tour guide on open-top buses in London. Whilst appearing on '' Would I Lie to You?'' Lloyd mentioned working at a call-centre where she was fired for impersonating various accents; whilst on '' QI'' she mentioned that she has also worked as a barmaid.

Career

Television and radio work

Lloyd has performed in numerous sketches on BBC Comedy Online including ''Funtime'' (a Dawson Bros. pilot), ''The Proposal'' and ''Dirty Dancing''. She has performed for the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

shows '' Newsjack'', '' My First Planet'', '' The Now Show'', ''Small Scenes'' and ''The Guns of Adam Riches''. Lloyd has appeared on television shows such as

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's '' Cardinal Burns'' and

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

's ''Fit ''and ''DNN'' and in films such as Baby Cow Productions' ''Caravan'' and Film4's ''Hallo Panda''. She wrote and performed in her own comedy pilot for BBC Three, ''The Cariad Show''. In May 2014,

aired a pilot for ''The Cariad Radio Show'', which was featured on the BBC Comedy of the Week podcast. Since 2014, she has been co-writing and performing in the BBC Radio Wales sketch comedy show ''Here Be Dragons''. In 2014, Lloyd starred as Holly in the BBC Three comedy pilot ''Vodka Diaries'' and as Poppy in the comedy series '' Give Out Girls'' on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

. In 2015, she played Dawn, a warden in a young offenders' institution in the BBC Three comedy series '' Crims''. In 2016 she appeared in the initial two episodes of Walliams & Friend on BBC One. She was also a series regular, playing several semi-improvised characters on '' Murder in Successville'' with Tom Davis. Lloyd is a regular panellist on '' QI'', having appeared in 14 episodes as of April 2024. She has also appeared on '' Have I Got News for You'', '' Would I Lie to You?'', '' The News Quiz'' and '' 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''. She appeared in the final series of '' Peep Show'' as Megan. In 2020, she appeared in Sara Pascoe's comedy series ''Out of Her Mind'' for BBC television. In March 2021, she presented the

programme ''What Have We Learnt About Grief?'' This programme mentioned the work of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. From March 2024 she appeared as a member of the Wales team on '' Round Britain Quiz''.

Live performance

Lloyd has performed in a variety of live shows since 2006, including ''The Freewheelin' Cariad Lloyd'' at

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

in 2012. In 2013, she performed in ''The 50 Hour Improvathon'' at Hoxton Hall, and ''The Freewheelin' Cariad Lloyd'' at Soho Theatre among others. In 2014, she performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with Louise Ford in ''Cariad and Louise's Character Hour''. Lloyd is a member of the improvisational comedy group

. In 2014, the show won the Chortle Award for Best Character, Improv or Sketch Act, and two DVDs of one of their live shows have been released by Go Faster Stripe in 2015 and 2018. Other members of the group include

Rachel Parris Rachel Sarah Parris (born 1984) is an English comedian, musician, actress and presenter. She hosted the satirical news show '' Late Night Mash'' (formerly ''The Mash Report''). Early life Parris attended Loughborough High School. She holds an ...

, Amy Cooke-Hodgson and Joseph Morpurgo.

Writing

Lloyd's book, ''You Are Not Alone'', was published in 2023. In a review in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

,'' the book was described as "a blackly funny, honest, thought-provoking and compassionate book that will be of comfort to all who know loss".

Podcasts

Lloyd created and hosts the podcast '' Griefcast'', a series of conversations about death, bereavement, and coping with the loss of a loved one. It has won several awards, including: "Best Entertainment Podcast", "Best Interview Podcast" and "Podcast of the Year" at the British Podcast Awards and an ARIA Award for "Podcast of the Year". Lloyd has appeared on other comedians' podcasts including '' Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown'' in 2012, '' Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' in 2016, '' Do the Right Thing'' in 2017, and Mike Wozniak's "St. Elwick's Neighbourhood Association Newsletter Podcast" as Veronica Tooze MBE, in 2021.
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Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

*
''Griefcast''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Cariad 1982 births Living people British television actors British women comedians British women writers British podcasters British women podcasters Alumni of the University of Sussex Actors from the London Borough of Barnet Comedians from the London Borough of Barnet English people of Welsh descent Actresses from London People from Chipping Barnet