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 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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