Sarah Kendall (born 3 August 1976) is an Australian

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

from

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. She won the

Raw Comedy Raw Comedy, stylised as RAW Comedy, is an Australian annual competition for emerging stand-up comedians held by Melbourne International Comedy Festival. History and description The Raw Comedy competition was established at the Melbourne Inter ...

competition in 1998 and appeared regularly on Australian television. She moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 2000 at the age of 24.

Early life

Kendall grew up in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle, also commonly referred to as Greater Newcastle ( ; ), is a large Metropolitan area, metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the cities of City of Newcastle, Newcastle and Ci ...

and attended

Merewether High School Merewether High School (abbreviated as MHS) is a government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school, located in the suburb of Broadmeadow in the city of , Australia. It was established in 1977 following the merger o ...

. She moved on to

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

at the age of 18. She began her career in 1996 partaking in the annual 'Review' show. Of it she said: “It started at university where there was a stand-up competition which some of my friends said I should do but I was too scared to do it. I was a genuine coward about it all and that in itself started to bug me, so eventually I got up on stage. I hated every single minute of it and was sick beforehand. But that made me even more determined because I couldn't work out why my fear was so disproportionate to the thing I was doing. It was just me talking for five minutes and so what if I got booed off stage. After about seven or eight years I eventually got it under control.”

Stand-up comedy

Kendall has performed solo shows at the

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 ...

since

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, with her

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

show being nominated for the

Perrier award Perrier ( , also , ) is a French brand of bottled water marketed as coming from its source in Vergèze, located in the Gard ''département''. Perrier was part of the Perrier Vittel Group SA, which became Nestlé Waters France after the acqui ...

. She has also performed in the

Melbourne Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...

since 2000. In February 2003 she was in Greenwich, London, performing a
Up The Creek
comedy club, alongside

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 ...

. Kendall talked about how she has reviewed her own comic response to a heckler who threatened her with sexual violence during a routine in an article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' on 2 August 2014. She said, "I built a routine around it – but looking back, I betrayed the seriousness of the incident". Kendall remarked that she dropped the routine because it started to sit uncomfortably with her.

Television and radio

Kendall has been a "special guest" on the

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

comedy show ''

Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections ''Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections'' was a BBC Radio 2 satirical comedy show starring Andy Parsons and Henry Naylor. It also stars Richie Webb, and one female "special guest". Female guests included Lucy Porter, Jo Caulfield, Julia Morr ...

''. She was part of an all-female sketch comedy show called ''Beehive'' also starring

Alice Lowe Alice Eva Lowe (born 3 April 1977)England & Wales births 1837 – 2006 is an English actress, writer, director, and comedian. She has appeared as Dr. Haynes in '' Black Mirror: Bandersnatch'' and Madeleine Wool/Liz Asher in ''Garth Marenghi's ...

Barunka O'Shaughnessy Barunka Sarah G. O'Shaughnessy (born August 1973) is a British actress, writer and producer. She is best known for playing Sacha Merrion on '' Bo! in the USA'' and for her appearances in ''The Mighty Boosh''.

and Clare Thomson, which was aired on E4. She was a guest stand up comic on

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 ...

's ''

Russell Howard's Good News ''Russell Howard's Good News'' is a British comedy and topical news television show which was broadcast on BBC Three between 2009 and 2014, and on BBC Two between 2014 and 2015. Hosted by comedian Russell Howard, it offered his commentary on th ...

''. From 2010, she took the role of Libby McKenzie, an Australian character introduced in Series 6 of 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 ...

series ''

Clare in the Community ''Clare in the Community'' is a British radio comedy series, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, starring Sally Phillips as Clare. It was adapted from the comic strip of the same name which appeared in ''The Guardian'' newspaper, written by Harry Venning ...

''. On 23 November 2012, Kendall appeared on BBC Radio 4's satirical news show ''

The Now Show ''The Now Show'' is a British radio comedy programme on BBC Radio 4 which satirises the weekly news. The show, which ran from 1998 to 2024, is a mixture of stand-up, sketches and songs hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. It features regular ...

'', and on 4 May 2015 appeared in ''The Vote Now Show'', one of six election specials. Kendall appeared on the

Dave Dave may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the 1993 film * ''Dave'' (TV series), a 2020 American comedy series * ...

TV series '' Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled''. She was a guest on BBC Radio 4's '' Quote... Unquote'' on 21 September 2015. In March 2017, her three-part series ''Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy'' was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. A second volume of Sarah Kendall's Australian Trilogy was aired in August 2018. She has also appeared in

Richard Herring Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the leadin ...

's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in 2021, in which Herring took issue with an article that suggested she met her husband at the

Edinburgh 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 ...

, she revealed that they in fact met at a Melbourne Comedy festival. She was also featured in a

Georg Jensen Georg Arthur Jensen (31 August 1866 in Rådvad – 2 October 1935 in Copenhagen) was a Danish silversmith and founder of Georg Jensen A/S (also known as Georg Jensen Sølvsmedie). Early life Born in 1866, Jensen was the son of a knife gri ...

commercial. She appeared in the season finale episode of the first season of ''

Motherland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

'', originally aired on BBC2, as a nanny. In 2019, Kendall created, wrote and starred in the comedy TV series '' Frayed'', renewed in 2021. Kendall was the winner of Series 11 of the comedy game show '' Taskmaster''.

Personal life

Kendall was married to Henry Naylor and has two children. She identifies as gay.

Awards

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Sarah Living people 1976 births Australian emigrants to England Australian LGBTQ comedians Australian women comedians Australian women television writers Contestants on British game shows Lesbian comedians People from Newcastle, New South Wales