Karen Bayley at The Glee Oxford

Brummie comedian & writer, Karen Bayley is the first ever female winner of the prestigious Comedy Store King Gong Award. The same year she reached the finals of the BBC New Comedy Award & The Babycham Funny Women Award.

​A regular guest on BBC Radio 5 Live , Karen’s television appearances include The Last Word, Take The Mike, Sex On The Job and 100 Greatest Cartoons.

She recently completed an extensive UK and overseas tour, supporting Joe Lycett. Karen has also written for Joe on Celebrity Juice and 8 Out of 10 Cats.

Karen is passionate about sport, especially her beloved football team West Bromwich Albion. Regular radio appearances talking about rugby, motor racing and football led to Karen being nicknamed “Geezer Bird”. Not that she minded, in fact Karen embraced all that this entails in her hit 2015 Edinburgh solo show, whilst still aspiring to slap on some lippy and slip on some heels.

As an actress Karen is best known for her role as the Holloway Prison Warden in the multi BAFTA winning film LONGFORD, directed by Tom Hooper and starring Samantha Morton as ‘Myra Hindley’ and Jim Broadbent as ‘Lord Longford’. Karen is also fondly remembered for playing Paul Whitehouse’s ‘Goth’ wife in a series of adverts for Aviva.

Prior to comedy, Karen had a successful career as a primary school teacher and before teaching she worked as a professional dancer. Throw her a pair of tap shoes and she can still hot shoe shuffle!