Daisy May Cooper (born 1 August 1986) is an English actress and writer. She won the 2018 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for playing Kerry Mucklowe in the

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

series '' This Country'', which she co-created and co-wrote with her younger brother, Charlie Cooper.

Early life and education

Cooper was born in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, in 1986 and is the elder of two children. She grew up living in a two-bedroom council house in

Cirencester Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...

. Her brother, Charlie Cooper, is also an actor and writer. She attended Cirencester Deer Park School, followed by drama school at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

in London.

Career

After one role as a young mother in ITV series '' Doc Martin'' she returned to the West Country, working as a cleaner with her brother Charlie. For a while the siblings lived together – their experiences would later form part of the writings for ''This Country''. In 2014, she landed the role of PC Garvey in the TV series '' The Wrong Mans''. In the same year, a pilot based on the Coopers' initial series pitch had been shot for ITV as the (never released) film ''Kerry'', setting the basis for ''This Country''. She wrote and starred with her brother, Charlie, in the BBC Three comedy series ''This Country'', for which she won a TV BAFTA award for Best Female Comedy Performance in 2018. Due to the success of the first series of ''This Country'', a second series was commissioned and aired on BBC Three in February 2018. A third series aired in 2020. In 2019, she played Peggotty in '' The Personal History of David Copperfield'' and in 2020, she had a part in

Armando Iannucci Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer and performer. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of Oxford. St ...

's HBO space comedy '' Avenue 5''. She also appeared with her father, Paul, on '' Celebrity Gogglebox''. On 29 July 2020, Cooper took part in the tenth series of '' Taskmaster''. In 2022 she played one of the two lead characters in the television sitcom '' The Witchfinder'' and co-wrote and starred in '' Am I Being Unreasonable?'' In 2023, she participated as "Otter" on the fourth series of '' The Masked Singer'' and starred in ''

Rain Dogs ''Rain Dogs'' is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in September 1985 on Island Records. A loose concept album about "the urban dispossessed" of New York City, ''Rain Dogs'' is generally considered the middl ...

''. Also that year, she began voicing Tiny the elephant in an advertising campaign for bank TSB. In March 2025, she starred in the first series of LOL: Last One Laughing UK, hosted by

Jimmy Carr James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972) is an Irish-British comedian, presenter, writer and actor. He is known for his rapid-fire deadpan delivery of One-line joke, one-liners. He began his comedy career in 1997, and he has regula ...

& Roisin Conaty, alongside

Richard Ayoade Richard Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is a British comedian, actor, writer, director and presenter. He played the role of socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), for which he won the 2014 Br ...

, Sara Pascoe, Lou Sanders,

Rob Beckett Robert Anthony Beckett (born 2 January 1986) is an English comedian, actor, and presenter. He was a co-host on the ITV2 spin-off show '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!'' from 2012 to 2014. Since 2016, Beckett has been a team captain ...

, Judi Love,

Bob Mortimer Robert Renwick Mortimer (born 23 May 1959) is an English comedian, author, television presenter, writer and actor. He is one half of the comedy double act Reeves and Mortimer with Jim Moir, Vic Reeves, and appears in the ''Mortimer & Whitehouse ...

Joe Wilkinson Joseph Roland Wilkinson (born 11 February 1975) is an English comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He began his comedy career in 2004 and has supported Alan Carr and Russell Howard on tour. In 2006, Wilkinson won the Hackney Empire New Act of ...

Joe Lycett Joe Harry Lycett (born 1988), also known by the self-given moniker "Mummy", and officially self-renamed briefly as Hugo Boss in 2020, is a British comedian, television presenter, and painter. He has appeared on many TV shows, including '' Live ...

& Harriet Kemsley

Personal life

Cooper married her long-term partner, Will Weston, on 21 September 2019. The couple have two children, a daughter and a son. In July 2021, it was reported that Cooper had separated from her husband 10 months after the birth of their son. Cooper has another son. Cooper's second cousin

Mathew Baynton Mathew John Baynton (born 18 November 1980) is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. He is a member of the Them There collective, in which he wrote and starred in ''Horrible Histories (2009 TV series), Horrible Histories'', ''Yonderlan ...

is also in the acting profession as is her uncle Trevor Cooper.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Daisy May 1986 births Living people Actresses from Basingstoke Actresses from Gloucestershire Best Female Comedy Performance BAFTA Award (television) winners Actors from Cirencester WFTV Award winners 21st-century English actresses Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art English television actresses English voice actresses English women television writers English women comedians Comedians from Hampshire Comedians from Gloucestershire