Jennifer Jane Saunders (born 6 July 1958) is an English comedian, actress, singer, impressionist, satirist and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with her best friend and comedy partner, Dawn French. With French, Saunders co-wrote and starred in their eponymous sketch show, French and Saunders and later received acclaim in the 1990s for writing and playing her character Edina Monsoon in her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. She received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2009 with French.
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Early life
Jennifer Jane Saunders was born on 6 July 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England. Her mother, Barbara Jane (née Duminy), was a biology teacher, and her father, Robert Thomas Saunders, served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He reached the rank of group captain, and later worked for British Aerospace. Six months after her birth, Saunders' parents moved to Cyprus. Her family moved to Camberley, and then to Melksham when she was ten. She has three brothers: Tim, Peter, and Simon. As her father was in the armed forces during her childhood years, Saunders changed schools several times. She was educated from the age of five to 18 in boarding schools and then at St Paul's Girls' School, an independent school in west London. Her first year of secondary school was at a comprehensive school in Wiltshire. Her parents had wanted her to board at Stonar School. Her family moved to Cheshire in 1971 when her father left the RAF for Hawker Siddeley. At Northwich Grammar School For Girls she played in goal for the school hockey team. After school, she worked for a year in Italy as an au pair; one of her employers, Adriana Ivancich, was an inspiration for Saunder's later role in Absolutely Fabulous.
In 1977, Saunders received a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London on a drama teachers' course, where she met her future comedy partner, Dawn French. French and Saunders came from RAF backgrounds, and had grown up on the same base, even having had the same best friend, without ever meeting. The comic duo originally did not get on well, and as far as Saunders was concerned, French was a "cocky little upstart". The distrust was mutual: French considered Saunders snooty and uptight. French wanted to become a drama teacher, whereas Saunders loathed the idea and had not fully understood what the course was about; thus, she disliked French for being enthusiastic and confident about the course. Saunders was shocked to find that she was taking a course to become a teacher, as her mother had filled in the application form. Her mother was saddened when Saunders chose not to apply for an Oxbridge university education.
After the initial friction experienced during drama school, French and Saunders shared a flat together. French has remarked on Saunders' messy habits when sharing the house saying: "When we lived together in Chalk Farm, she had a room at the top of the house. We got broken into and the police said, 'Well, it is quite bad, but the worst is that room at the top.' And, of course, nobody had been in there." The two performed together after graduation, working the festival, cabaret, and stand-up circuits. They formed a double-act called The Menopause Sisters. Saunders described the act, which involved wearing tampons in their ears, as "cringeworthy". The manager of the club where they performed recalled, "They didn't seem to give a damn. There was no star quality about them at all."
Career
Early career
French and Saunders would eventually come to public attention as members of the informal comedy collective The Comic Strip, part of the alternative comedy scene in the early 1980s. They answered a 1980 advert in The Stage newspaper looking for female comedians to perform at The Comic Strip, which had, until that point, only had male performers. When they walked into the audition, they were immediately told, "You're booked. When can you start?" They became continuing members of The Comic Strip, which included Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Peter Richardson, Nigel Planer, Pete Richens, Alexei Sayle and Robbie Coltrane.
The group performed at the Boulevard Theatre, above Soho's Raymond Revuebar, and gained a cult following, with visiting audience members including Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, and Robin Williams, who once joined in the performance. By the time French and Saunders became members of The Comic Strip, French was already working as a drama teacher, while Saunders was on the dole and spending much of her time in bed.
The comedy group appeared on Channel 4's first night on air, in the first episode of The Comic Strip Presents: Five Go Mad In Dorset, broadcast on 2 November 1982. In the episodes "Bad News" and "More Bad News", Saunders plays a trashy rock journalist touring with the fictional heavy metal band, Bad News.
In 1985, Saunders starred in and co-wrote Girls on Top with French, Tracey Ullman, and Ruby Wax, which portrayed four eccentric women sharing a flat in London. Saunders also appeared in Ben Elton's Happy Families where she played various members of the same family, including all four Fuddle sisters in the six-episode BBC situation comedy. Saunders starred in a Comic Strip film called The Supergrass, a parody of slick 1980s police dramas, directed by Peter Richardson. Saunders played Meryl Streep playing Arthur Scargill's wife in Strike, a Comic Strip spoof on the 1984 miners' strike. She appeared twice as a guest on The Young Ones.
In 1987, she and French created French and Saunders, a popular sketch comedy series for the BBC which sporadically aired until 2007, often with long gaps between series. Saunders also appeared in Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball live benefit in 1989, along with Dawn French and others.
Film
Saunders has also appeared in several films, such as In the Bleak Midwinter (1995), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Fanny & Elvis (1999), and also made cameo appearances in the Spice Girls' film Spice World (1997) and Absolument fabuleux (2001), a French film based on Absolutely Fabulous.
In the animated film, Shrek 2 (2004), she provided the voice of the Fairy Godmother and sang the songs "The Fairy Godmother Song" and "Holding Out for a Hero". Her part took only four days to record. The sequel broke the first Shrek's own box office record in the U.S in just a fortnight, and it proceeded to make $353 million in just three weeks in the U.S. Her role won the People's Choice Award for the best movie villain in 2005.
She voiced Miss Spink in the animated film Coraline, in which her comedy partner Dawn French voiced a character called Miss Forcible. In 2015, she voiced Queen Elizabeth II in the animated film Minions, and in 2016, she voiced Miss Nana Noodleman in the animated film Sing, reprising the role again in Sing 2.
In 2022, she starred in Death on the Nile as Marie Van Schuyler alongside Dawn French, Gal Gadot and Kenneth Branagh who also directed the film.
Theatre
In 2018, Saunders appeared at the Vaudeville Theatre in the production of Lady Windermere's Fan as The Duchess of Berwick.
In June 2019, she appeared on stage in the production of Noël Coward's play, Blithe Spirit, as eccentric clairvoyant Madam Arcati. The show first opened at Theatre Royal Bath, and after a short tour of England it later transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre, London in March 2020. Two weeks into its run performances were cancelled due to the pandemic.
She reprised the role in autumn 2021 for eight weeks in the West End at The Harold Pinter Theatre.
In 2022, Saunders played the role of Mother Superior in Sister Act the Musical for six weeks at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, alongside Beverley Knight as Deloris Van Cartier.
In December 2023, Saunders made her pantomime debut as Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the London Palladium alongside Julian Clary, Paul Zerdin, Nigel Havers, Gary Wilmot, Rob Madge, Francis Mayli McCann and Louis Gaunt.
In March 2026, it was announced that she would play alongside Dawn French in Cinderella at the London Palladium.
Personal life
Saunders, who grew up in nearby Acton Bridge, married Adrian Edmondson at Christ Church, Crowton, Cheshire on 11 May 1985. At the wedding were fellow Comic Strip members Rik Mayall (Edmondson's longtime comedy partner) and Robbie Coltrane, whom the vicar, Rev Austin Oates, much to his surprise, described as 'delightful and charming'. The reception was held at Jennifer's parents' home. Afterwards the couple visited Saint Lucia.
They have three daughters: singer-songwriter Ella Edmondson (b. 1986), actress Beattie Edmondson (b. 1987), and Freya Edmondson (b. 1990). They have five grandchildren together.
In July 2010, Saunders announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer the previous October, and was in remission following a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.
Saunders published her autobiography, Bonkers: My Life in Laughs, in October 2013.
She is a patron for Smart Works Charity, a non-profit organisation supporting unemployed women into work through clothing and coaching.
Filmography
Writer
2016: Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (writer)
2012: Viva Forever! (writer)
2006: Jam & Jerusalem (16 episodes, 2006–2009)
2008: French and Saunders Still Alive (V) (writer)
2007: The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle (6 episodes, 2007)
2007: A Bucket o' French & Saunders (5 episodes, 2007)
2001: Absolument fabuleux (creator: TV series Absolutely Fabulous)
2000: Mirrorball (TV) (writer)
2000: French & Saunders Live (V) (writer)
1999: The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything (TV) (writer)
1998: Absolutely Fabulous: A Life (V) (writer)
1998: Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Not! (V) (original idea)
1996: Roseanne (1 episode, 1996)
1993: French and Saunders Live (V) (writer)
1992: Absolutely Fabulous (38 episodes, 1992–2012)
1991: Comic Relief (TV) (uncredited)
1987: French and Saunders (38 episodes, 1987–2005)
1986: Comic Relief (TV) (writer)
