Karen Taylor (born 29 June 1976; Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

, Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

) is an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 actress and comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

. She is a former finalist in the prestigious Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award

Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award

The Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award was a competition for comedians. It ran from 1994 to 2002 when it was discontinued due to sponsorship running out. Despite its short lifespan, its winners and finalists boast some of the UK's most notable comedy talent, including Noel Fielding, Jimmy Carr,...

 and has fronted her own sketch show on BBC Three

BBC Three

BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...

, entitled Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor

Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor

Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor is a British television sketch comedy show written and performed by BAFTA Award-winning comedian Karen Taylor and produced by Avalon Productions. The genre of the show focuses largely on sex and contains much innuendo. The title animation was created by Joanna Davidovich...

.

Taylor studied Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick

University of Warwick

The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...

 1994-1998, where she got to know other future actors Stephen Merchant

Stephen Merchant

Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...

 and Hannah Waterman

Hannah Waterman

Hannah Waterman-Groves is an English actress, daughter of Minder star Dennis Waterman and his second wife, actress Patricia Maynard.-Career:...

.

Taylor was a finalist in the Open Mic Award in 1999, and came further to prominence at the Edinburgh festival

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...

 in 2000. Her first major television role was as one of the performers in The Sketch Show

The Sketch Show

The Sketch Show is a British television sketch comedy programme, featuring many leading British comedians. It aired on ITV between 2001 and 2003.A short-lived spinoff of the same title was produced in the United States.- Original line-up :...

 on ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

, which ran for two series. She has also fronted FAQ U

FAQ U

FAQ U was a television programme broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK in 2005. It was shown every night, Monday to Friday, just after 11:00pm. It was presented by Justin Lee Collins in its first week, David Mitchell in the second and Karen Taylor in the third. It included four comedian guests and an...

 on Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 and appeared performing with Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan

Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

 on a Paul Calf DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

.

In 2007 Taylor fronted her first television sketch show, Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor. It was first aired in June 2007 on BBC Three

BBC Three

BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...

. Its initial reviews were generally positive. The show's "raunchy" and "lascivious" nature was noted by many of the critics, with almost all of the sketches involving characters whose main interest was 'sex'. Although described as potentially a "one-trick pony", the show was also lauded as "really, really funny" and "more amusing than the last eleventeen sketch shows you can think of". The show returned for a second series in July 2008, but will not be returning for a third. That same month also saw the release of British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is a 2008 British coming of age film film co-written and directed by Gurinder Chadha starring Georgia Groome. It is based on two teenage novels by Louise Rennison: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and It's OK, I'm Wearing Really Big Knickers...

, in which Taylor stars as the mother of the main character Georgia.
On November 11 2011, she appeared on Celebrity Mastermind

Celebrity Mastermind

Celebrity Mastermind is a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. The show is a spin-off of the long running quiz show Mastermind, with the exception that all the contestants are celebrities. As with the main show, John Humphrys is the host and question-master...

, answering questions on the specialist subject of Fred Dibnah

Fred Dibnah

Frederick "Fred" Dibnah MBE , born in Bolton, was an English steeplejack and eccentric with a keen interest in mechanical engineering who became a cult television personality....

.