Catherine first appeared on our TV screens in the early nineties in small acting roles in dramas such as The Bill and Casualty, but as a girl who was always doing impressions of her classmates at school, she soon made the move into stand-up comedy.

Her 2001 Edinburgh Film Festival one-woman show played to sold-out crowds and in 2004, BBC Two gave Catherine her own programme, The Catherine Tate Show. It was on this show that we were introduced to her most famous comedy creations, teenager Lauren 'Am I bovvered?' Cooper and Joannie 'Nan' Taylor, the cockney grandmother. The show was a massive success, and Catherine won two British Comedy Awards for her work.

Despite her comedy success, Catherine decided to return to her first love acting in 2005, treading the boards in a revival of Some Girl(s), alongside Saffron Burrows and Friends star David Schwimmer. She has since acted in three films and several other TV dramas, and in 2007 she announced her biggest acting role to date, playing the Doctor's assistant Donna Noble in the fourth series of Doctor Who.

Catherine is returning to the West End stage this July, starring in a revival of David Eldridge's Under The Blue Sky.