Francesca Martinez

Francesca is a comedian, writer, speaker and actress, who has toured the globe with her award-winning stand-up shows. She launched her comedy career in 2000, when she became the first woman to win the Open Mic Award at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Since starring in five series of BBC's Grange Hill in the 1990s, Francesca has made numerous TV appearances, including BBC2's Extras opposite Kate Winslet and BBC3's Russell Howard’s Good News.

For CBBC, she guested on The Dumping Ground and wrote a new comedy-drama, How I Found My Two Best Friends, which airs in April 2021. She will take the lead role in All of Us, her powerful new play at the National Theatre, which will open in the Dorfman space in 2022.

From 2011, she toured her award-winning show, What The *** Is Normal?!, around the world, clocking up 140 dates. Her best-selling book, also called What The **** Is Normal?! was published by Penguin Random House in 2014. It garnered rave reviews, was nominated Best Book in the Chortle Comedy Awards, and came runner-up in the Bread & Roses Book Award.

In 2016, she supported Frankie Boyle on tour on his sold-out UK tour, and was commissioned to write a comedy show: Francesca Martinez’s Wobbly Manifesto, which she performed at museums around the UK. In 2021, she contributed to a new anthology of feminist writing, This is How We Come Back Stronger (Feminist Press, & Other Stories).

Francesca made global headlines in 2008 when she became the first Olympic Torch-Bearer to pull out of the London relay in protest at China’s treatment of Tibet. In January 2012, she made a splash when she took on Michael Portillo live on BBC1’s This Week. Her 2019 debut on BBC1’s Question Time was described as the show’s “best ever moment” and went viral with 11 million views in the first week alone. Francesca has cerebral palsy but much prefers the word ‘wobbly’. She is currently writing her new book.