Isabel Fay is a British children's screenwriter, formerly a comedy writer and performer.

Isabel Fay
Comedy actress & writer Isabel Fay
Born
Alma materRoyal Holloway University of London
Occupation(s)Actress, comedian, writer
Websitewww.isabelfay.com
www.cleverpie.com

Early life and education

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Fay was born in Bath in 1979 [citation needed] and graduated from Royal Holloway University of London in 2001 with a 2:1 BA (Hons)[citation needed].

Career

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TV, film and radio

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Fay has exclusively written TV comedy for children since 2016, having shifted her focus from comedy performing. She has written for every series of BAFTA winning Class Dismissed on CBBC, Sesame Workshop's The Furchester Hotel for CBeebies, Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed for CBBC, two series of Swashbuckle for CBeebies, It's Pony for Nickelodeon, Rhyme Time Town for Netflix, Waffle the Wonder Dog for CBeebies, two series of Danny and Mick for CBBC, The Rubbish World of Dave Spud for CITV voiced by Johnny Vegas and Jane Horrocks, and had sketches performed on CBBC's Crackerjack. She has a current[when?] development deal with DreamWorks.

As an actor Fay appeared in the first series of BBC2's How Not to Live Your Life[1] with Dan Clark and David Armand and co-starred with Dan Clark in Dan Clark's Guide to Dating for Comedy Central.[2]

In 2011 Fay's self-penned debut short film With or Without U2 won Best Comedy Short at the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival, despite the controversy surrounding the film's soundtrack. Fay wrote it to a choral score of U2's With or Without You, but the band personally declined her the license to use the score. Fay arranged for a chorus to sing the score live along to the muted film.

Fay appeared in the film Clive Hole, adapted from a short story by Alexi Sayle and starring David Schneider, Karl Theobald and Susan Vidler. She also appeared in the film Rekindle by Marios Hamboulides, starring Tom Conti, Karl Theobald and My Family's Daniela Denby-Ashe, and she voiced the short film Man in a Cat with Kevin Eldon and Josie Long.

For CBBC Fay appeared in children's comedy shows Little Howard's Big Question and Hacker Time. She was a member of the cast for E4's Dogface, and appeared in the BBC's Comedy Shuffle and The Royal Bodyguard.

She also wrote and performed in all three series of ITV2's flagship show Comedy Cuts and has shot her own sketch show pilot with Silver River TV.

For BBC Radio 4 Fay starred in sitcom pilot 49 Cedar Street, and appeared as a supporting comedy character in Sarah Millican's Support Group.

Live comedy shows

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Fay co-created and starred in sketch show The Works with David Armand at Madame Jojo's in Soho

Fay's solo live work is usually a collaboration with if.comeddies award-winning director Matt Holt (who directed Brendan Burns' if.comeddies award-winning show 2007) and Perrier award-winning producer Tom Hopgood (who produced Laura Solon's Perrier award winning show in 2005).

Fay has written and performed three solo comedy shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, first appearing with her "Magic Steve's Disappearing Act" (featuring her magician's assistant character, Annette Cadabra) in 2006.[3] She appeared in her second solo show, "Isabel Fay: Altar Ego", in 2007;[4] and her third, "Don't Let A Gift Horse in the House", at The Pleasance Courtyard in 2008.[5]

Internet comedy

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Along with Tom Hopgood, Fay co-owns production company Clever Pie, which makes online comedy sketches and films.[6] On 8 June 2012 Clever Pie released a musical sketch entitled "Thank You Hater!", which immediately went viral.[7][8][9] Stephen Fry described the sketch as "a masterpiece".[10]

For BBC Comedy Online Fay wrote and performed the short film Common Film Ground[11] and co-wrote and starred in Leader's Wives.[12] She also produced an exclusive sketch for Funny Or Die set to Bonnie Tyler's hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" called "Total Paperclips of the Heart".[13]

Fay wrote and performed as a roving reporter on Monkey TV's online show Newslog, which also stars Steve Punt.

References

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  1. ^ "How Not to Live Your Life". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  2. ^ "Dan Clark's Guide To Dating". Comedy Central (UK and Ireland). Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  3. ^ Magic Steve's Disappearing Act' review : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide. Chortle. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  4. ^ "Isabel Fay: Altar Ego". Metro.co.uk. 22 August 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  5. ^ Isabel Fay: Don't Let A Gift Horse In The House. Metro.co.uk (10 August 2008). Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  6. ^ Internet comedy production company Clever Pie's website. Cleverpie.com. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  7. ^ "Thank you hater: comedian hits back at trolls in mock tribute". The Guardian. 9 June 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
  8. ^ "'Thank You Hater' video by Isabel Fay trumps trolls with tribute track". The Telegraph. 8 June 2012. Archived from the original on 9 June 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
  9. ^ "'Thank You Hater!' By Isabel Fay Tells All Internet Trolls To Go Jump Off A Bridge". Huffington Post. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  10. ^ "How to feed trolls". Stephen Fry's Twitter feed. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  11. ^ Common Film Ground on BBC Comedy
  12. ^ Leader's Wives on BBC Comedy
  13. ^ Total Paperclips of the Heart on Funny or Die Archived 2 August 2012 at archive.today. Funnyordie.co.uk (22 August 2011). Retrieved 26 August 2011.
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