| Susan Calman | |
|---|---|
| Medium | Stand-up |
| Nationality | British |
| Website | www.susancalman.com |
Susan Calman is a Scottish comedian. She is a frequent panellist on BBC Radio 4 topical shows The News Quiz and I Guess That's Why They Call It The News, has appeared in Channel 4 sketch shows[1] and covers for Fred MacAulay on his BBC Radio Scotland show.[2] She has also appeared in Rab C. Nesbitt. She is a regular performer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and at The Stand comedy clubs.
She studied law at Glasgow University, winning a Judge Brennan scholarship and a three-month stint in North Carolina working with criminals on death row.[3] She gradually became dissatisfied with working as a specialist in freedom of information and data protection and developed her stand-up comedy during evenings, eventually giving up her job with Dundas & Wilson to develop a career in comedy.[3]
She reached the semi-finals of the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2005 and was a finalist in the Funny Women competition in 2006.[3] Along with the rest of the cast of Channel 4’s sketch show Blowout, she won a Scottish BAFTA in 2007, and in 2009 she was awarded the Best New Scottish Comedian at the Real Radio Variety Awards.[3]
Her father is Sir Kenneth Calman, chancellor of Glasgow University and former chief medical officer for England and Scotland.[3]
The Times commented that Calman's "status as a diminutive lesbian — she is 4ft 11in — gives a certain grist to her mill but, her Hobbit-like stature aside, what strikes you about her is her chirpy, optimistic level-headedness."[3]