Deborah Frances-White

Deborah Frances-White
Born Brisbane, Australia
Medium Stand-up, improvisation
Nationality British, Australian
Years active 2007–present
Genres Observational humour, Self-help, storytelling
Subject(s) Sexism, religion
Website www.deborahfrances-white.com

Deborah Frances-White is a comedian and writer who regularly delivers seminars to women in business on subjects including charisma, diversity and inclusion.[1] She has both British and Australian citizenship.[2]

Early life

Deborah was born in Australia and adopted at ten days old.[3] She moved to the UK and attended Oxford University and founded improv theatre company The Spontaneity Shop of which she is still a director.[4]

Religion

Deborah became a Jehovah's Witness while still a teenager. Her years in the religion and how she left it were the focus of her 2012 Edinburgh Fringe stand-up comedy show and one of the episodes of her BBC Radio 4 show Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice.[5]

Career

After developing a number of improvisation formats at The Spontaneity Shop (including the improvised romantic comedy DreamDate which had a pilot made for ITV[6]) Deborah turned to stand-up comedy. Her first significant solo show was How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You which she performed at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007[7] and at The Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2008[8] where she also hosted The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow.[9]

Deborah's recent shows have been more personal. Cult Following (2012) dealt with her experiences as a teenage Jehovah's Witness,[10] Half a Can of Worms (2013) was about tracking down her biological family[11] and Friend of a Friend of Dorothy (2015) was about feminism, sexism and homophobia.[12]

Deborah has continued to develop new improvisation formats. Voices in Your Head is a show which allows comedians, improvisers and actors to create comedy characters while the audience watches. Guests have included Phill Jupitus, Sara Pascoe, Russell Tovey, Mike McShane, Hannibal Buress and others.[13] In 2015 she created The Beau Zeaux a long-form improvised comedy featuring a rotating cast including Marcus Brigstocke, Thom Tuck, Rachel Parris, Brendan Murphy, Ed Coleman, Milly Thomas and Pippa Evans.[14] Guests have included Russell Tovey[15] and Dan Starkey.

Her BBC Radio 4 series Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice was broadcast in spring 2015[5] and featured stories about her adoption, green card marriage, and quest to find her biological family. The episodes were titled Half a Can of Worms, Cult Following, Visa Issues and Who's Your Daddy? In January 2016, The Writers Guild of Great Britain awarded Deborah Best Radio Comedy at their annual ceremony.[16]

Corporate Work

Deborah also regularly appears at corporate events speaking about confidence, charisma, diversity and sexism.[17] Her TEDx talk on Charisma vs Stage-Fright[18] was cited by James Caan as the secret of his presenting skills.[19]

Writing

Deborah is also a screenwriter with commissions from Fox Searchlight, Redwave Films, FremantleMedia, ITV Studios, the BBC and Channel 4.[20] With her writing partner Philippa Waller, she contributed an episode of Young Dracula in 2014.[21] She has co-written two books: The Improv Handbook with Tom Salinsky[22] and Off the Mic with Marsha Shandur[23] both published by Bloomsbury. Deborah writes for Standard Issue Magazine.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kelley, Trista (1 June 2012). "Barclays Books Comedian to Harness Female Bankers’ Secret Power". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Deborah Frances-White Rolls The Dice Episode Guide". Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  3. ↑ "Deborah Frances-White.com". Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "About The Spontaneity Shop". The Spontaneity Shop. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Deans, Jason (27 October 2004), "ITV pilots improvised dating show", The Guardian (London)
  7. ↑ Bennett, Steve (27 April 2008). "Deborah Frances-White: How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep with You". Chortle. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  8. ↑ Kent, Melissa (23 March 2008), "Venus and Mars, bah! Dating a man is easy", The Age (Melbourne)
  9. ↑ http://www.bloomsbury.com/author/deborah-frances-white "Deborah Frances-White". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  10. ↑ Richardson, Jay (21 August 2012), "Comedy review: Deborah Frances-White: Cult Following, Assembly Roxy", The Scotsman (Edinburgh)
  11. ↑ Bijleveld, Celine (20 September 2013), "I tracked down my biological family online: 'It was like a treasure hunt'", The Guardian (London)
  12. ↑ "Friend of a Friend of Dorothy". EdFringe.com. 29 August 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "Voices In Your Head". Soho Theatre. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "The Beau Zeaux". So Television. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "The Beau Zeaux". Etcetera Theatre. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "Writers Guild Award Winners". Writers Guild of Great Britain. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  17. ↑ "Deborah Frances-White Live in the West End!". 21 January 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "TedxTalks". Charisma versus Stage Fright. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  19. ↑ Caan, James (8 October 2015). "Wonder where I got my presenting skills from?". Twitter. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  20. ↑ Putt, Sara. "Deborah Frances-White". Sara Putt. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  21. ↑ "Young Dracula: Full House". IMDB. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  22. ↑ "The Improv Handbook". Amazon. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  23. ↑ "Off the Mic: The World's Best Stand-Up Comedians Get Serious About Comedy". Amazon. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  24. ↑ "Standard Issue Magazine". Standard Issue. Retrieved 14 October 2015.

External links

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