Fiona Allen is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 comedienne and actress.

Career

Allen has appeared in many sketch shows, including Smack the Pony

Smack the Pony

Smack the Pony is a British sketch comedy show that ran from 1999 until 2003 on Channel 4. Its title was intended to sound like a euphemism for female masturbation; the working title was Spot the Pony. The main performers and writers on the show were Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips...

, Goodness Gracious Me and The All Star Comedy Show. She has also appeared in many television dramas including Dalziel and Pascoe

Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC TV series)

Dalziel and Pascoe is a popular British television crime drama based on the Dalziel and Pascoe books by Reginald Hill, which was first broadcast in March 1996. It is set in Yorkshire, and is about two detectives...

and Coronation Street

Coronation Street

Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...

, as well as the sitcom Happiness

Happiness (TV series)

Happiness was a British sitcom broadcast on BBC2 with dramatic, melancholy overtones written by Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings with Whitehouse in the lead role.There have been two series thus far, the first running in 2001 and the second in 2003...

alongside Paul Whitehouse

Paul Whitehouse

Paul Whitehouse is a Welsh actor, writer and comedian. He became known for his work with Harry Enfield and as one of the stars of the popular BBC sketch show, The Fast Show. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was in the top 50 comedy acts voted for by comedians and comedy insiders...

. Subsequently she appeared as Sandra, in the film version of the Viz

Viz (comic)

Viz is a popular British comic magazine which has been running since 1979.The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and either sexual or violent storylines...

comic strip The Fat Slags

The Fat Slags

The Fat Slags is a comic strip appearing in the "alternative" British comic Viz. The characters made their debut in 1989. The eponymous slags are Sandra Burke and Tracey Tunstall, known to other characters as San and Tray. They are depicted as overweight, eating large amounts of food, mainly chips,...

, and as a panelist on one episode of Mock the Week

Mock the Week

Mock the Week is a British topical celebrity panel game hosted by Dara Ó Briain that launched in 2005. The game is influenced by improvised topical stand-up comedy, with several rounds requiring players to deliver answers on unexpected subjects on the spur of the moment.It is made by independent...

.

Allen appeared in the first episode of the second series of the hit E4 teenage drama Skins

Skins (TV series)

Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...

, playing Maxxie's mum Jackie Oliver. Jackie is married to Walter who is played by Bill Bailey

Bill Bailey

Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...

. She also appears in BBC drama Waterloo Road

Waterloo Road (TV series)

Waterloo Road is an award-winning British television drama series, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 9 March 2006. Set in a troubled comprehensive school in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, the series focuses on the lives of the school's teacher and students, and confronts social...

as Georgia Stevenson, playing the former lover of Tom Clarkson.

Personal life

Her grandfather was Harry Allen, the last British hangman

Executioner

A judicial executioner is a person who carries out a death sentence ordered by the state or other legal authority, which was known in feudal terminology as high justice.-Scope and job:...

. Allen is married to the son of TV chat show host Michael Parkinson

Michael Parkinson

Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...

, also called Michael. Together they have two daughters, Honey and Sofia, and a son Felix.

In the late 1980s she worked on the reception at the Manchester nightclub The Haçienda

The Haçienda

Fac 51 Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine...

, ran The Area (Factory Records' shop) at Afflecks Palace and she makes a brief appearance playing herself in the film 24 Hour Party People

24 Hour Party People

24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...

.

External links

• Fiona Allen at BBC Drama Faces