Grace Campbell (comedian)
Grace Campbell | |
|---|---|
 Campbell in 2024 | |
| Alma mater | Parliament Hill School |
| Occupation | Comedian |
| Parent(s) | Alastair Campbell Fiona Millar |
| Website | Official website |
Grace Campbell is a British comedian, filmmaker, writer and presenter. As a stand-up comedian she has performed solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Hammersmith Apollo. She has appeared on Channel 4's Riot Girls. Her first book, Amazing Disgrace: A Book About "Shame", was released by Hodder in 2021.
Early life and education
[edit]Her father, Alastair Campbell, started working for Tony Blair soon after she was born. Her mother, Fiona Millar, worked for Cherie Blair.[1] She spent her childhood in the New Labour movement, with the children of Blair and Philip Gould, and the grandchildren of Neil Kinnock.[1] She has said she became “more liberal than [her] father and more feminist than [her] mother,”[1] that her experience of politics as a child was “quite brutal”, and that she grew up with protesters outside her house and needed security.[2] Campbell attended Parliament Hill School, and felt she benefitted from an all girls environment.[3] While Tessa Jowell was her childhood inspiration, Campbell has said that Ed Miliband has the best sense of humour.[2] She was a frequent visitor to the Brandon Centre, a youth centre in Kentish Town, where she is now a patron.[4]
Career
[edit]Campbell is a feminist. She explained to Varsity that “women love [my stand-up]...they feel seen. They feel like I'm speaking to them and their friends,”.[3] In 2019, she toured the stand-up show "Why I'm Never Going Into Politics", where she revealed that her mother was her inspiration.[5] She performed All About Me(n) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2022.[6]
Campbell was a writer and star of Riot Girls, a Channel 4 show that used stunts and sketches to discuss how women were treated in society.[7]
Campbell's first book, Amazing Disgrace: A Book About "Shame", was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2021.[8] The book explores her relationship with shame, whether that be shame about rejection, sex or mental health. Times Radio described Amazing Disgrace as a “revealing and amusing memoir”,[9] whilst the Evening Standard said it was “an absolute riot. Brash, candid and casually obscene, this part memoir, part manual is a high octane adventure”.[10]
Activism
[edit]During a trip to Las Vegas, Campbell was the victim of rape.[3][11] She described her experience in The Guardian, and how she felt resentful of her previously “sex-positive” reputation in the immediate aftermath.[11] She has written about how having an abortion affected her “on a physiological and psychological level”.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Campbell, Grace (2016-09-23). "I was a Blairite baby: how Grace Campbell survived a childhood in politics". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ a b "Grace Campbell on "Why I'm never going into politics"". Run Riot. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ a b c "Stand-up, sex and saying it how it is with Grace Campbell". Varsity Online. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ "Grace Campbell | Brandon Centre". Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ "Grace Campbell: Why I'm Never Going Into Politics: 3 star review by Jodie McVicar". broadwaybaby.com. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ "Interview with comedian and author Grace Campbell". Voice Magazine. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ Guide, British Comedy. "Riot Girls - C4 Sketch Show". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ Campbell, Grace (2020). Amazing disgrace: a book about "shame". London: Hodder Studio. ISBN 978-1-5293-5400-3.
- ^ Amazing Disgrace. 2021-02-19. ISBN 978-1-5293-5403-4.
- ^ Luckhurst, Phoebe (2020-11-06). "Amazing Disgrace by Grace Campbell: An absolute riot". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ a b Campbell, Grace (2022-08-06). "I made a name for myself with 'sex-positive' comedy. Then I was raped on a night out. Would my openness be used against me?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ Campbell, Grace (2024-06-09). "'I felt entirely alone': comedian Grace Campbell on the aftermath of her abortion". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
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