| A graduate of the Central School of Speech and Drama and Royal National Theatre, London-born Catherine Tate spent a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company before turning her hand to stand-up comedy.
She appeared in the Channel 4 sketch show Barking, That Peter Kay Thing, and The Harry Hill Show before becoming part of Lee Mack's Perrier-nominated New Bits show at Edinburgh in 2000. She returned to the festival the following year with her own, one-woman show. Parts in Big Train, Attention Scum and the televised version of the satirical website TVGoHome soon followed.
After being spotted bu a casting director at Edinburgh, Tate was offered the role of Angela in the Dawn French vehicle Wild West, and soon after filming wrapped, her own sketch show on BBC2, The Catherine Tate Show, was commissioned. In it, she revives the character-based comedy that brought her such acclaim in Edinburgh. The series was a sleeper hit in 2004.
Catherine Tate is currently filming Season Four of Doctor Who in which she appears as the doctor's newest companion, Donna Noble.
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