Jennifer Jane Saunders was born July 12th 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire , UK. She attended Central School of Speech and Drama where she met her comedy partner Dawn French. Like many of the early 80s groundbreaking "alternative" comedians she began her career as comedienne/actress/writer with Dawn French at "The Comedy Store" in London, where she met fellow comedians Adrian Edmondson (later her husband), Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle and 'Peter Richardson' , who later opened his own club, "The Comic Strip", where these comedians quickly formed a regular format.

Dawn's and Jennifer's double-act personae had been created and honed on stage, playing the London clubs and fringe cabaret venues in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but subsequent acting appearances as part of The Comic Strip Presents..troupe and in the sitcom Happy Families had added further strings to their bows. The women had a firm idea on the type of show they wanted to make and wrote the sketches themselves, which resulted in a quirky mixture of satire, slapstick, sparky impressionism and other kinds of skits from a female perspective, the sum total successfully managing to bridge the gap between the new wave and the mainstream. For the first four series they were joined by the spoof middle-of-the-road comedy cabaret duo Raw Sex (Rivron and Brint), who also supported in the sketches.

Clever pastiches of famous movies Titanic, Lord of the Rings and song and dance parodies were memorable features of the shows. French and Saunders are dedicated supporters of the Comic Relief cause. Even by their high standards, their contribution to the 2003 extravaganza was ambitious: a delightful spoof of the Harry Potter movies, written and directed by Adrian Edmondson (Saunders' husband). Dawn French played Harry Potter, Jennifer Saunders was Ron Weasley and also author J K Rowling.

One of Jennifer's other famous roles of Edina Monsoon, in AbFab. Shes desperately trendy single mother in her late 30's, with two failed marriages and 2 children. She runs her own PR /design /fashion business. Saffron her daughter (played Julia Sawhalha) is hideously unfashionable - works hard, drinks cola and talks earnestly about science projects. Edina 's best friend mini-skirted Patsy (Joanna Lumley) provides a running theme for the series by (literally) chasing men. Patsy smokes chimney, drinks like a fish, dresses like a dream and has a fragile grasp of what work is. While Edina struggles to conquer life's perpetual problems such as what designer outfit to wear. Bubble (Jane Horrocks) is Edina 's cheery but ditzy and totally inefficient secretary.Her Mother (June Whitfield) tries to keep the famliy together and drives her daughter Edina crazy, being around all the time.

Cont opposite...

Jennifer has been married to Ade Edmondson for 20 years and they have three daughters: Beattie aged 18, Ella aged 17 and Freya aged 14.

Pasty & Edina in AbFab

The rest of the AbFab Cast

And with Dawn in French and Saunders

A nice greeting from husband Ade there

Harry Potter Comic Relief Style!

Researched from various sources on the net, Local Comedy Connections accept no responsiblity for the accuracy of this article.