Sandi Toksvig

Sandi Toksvig OBE, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and brought up around the world in Europe, Africa and the United States. She began her comedy career at Girton College, Cambridge where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman Footlights show as well as achieving a first-class degree. Sandi is well known to UK audiences as a broadcaster having begun her career in children’s television playing Ethel in the long running Saturday morning show Number 73. Since then her television career has included celebrated series such as Call My Bluff and Whose Line Is It Anyway? She was also host of Antiques Master for BBC2 and 1001 Things You Should Know for Channel 4. In 2016, Sandi took over from Stephen Fry as host of BBC2's hugely popular quiz show QI, and in 2014 she also replaced William G. Stewart as the host of 15 to 1 which made its comeback after 11 years. In 2017 she and Noel Fielding became the new co-hosts of The Great British Bake Off in its move to Channel 4. Sandi worked on three delightful series of GBBO before stepping down in early 2020 to make more time for her other projects, including The Write Offs – an empowering and uplifting two-part series for Channel 4 focusing on adult illiteracy – which will air in Spring 2020. For a decade Sandi was a familiar voice to BBC Radio 4 listeners as the chair of The News Quiz which led to her induction into the Radio Hall of Fame. Sandi is passionate about live performance. She performed at the very first night of The Comedy Store in London and for many years was a member of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational comedy team. Sandi conceived Playhouse Live for Sky Arts, producing specially commissioned live drama for television. Much of Sandi’s time is devoted to writing and in 2019 she became president of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. Sandi has written more than twenty fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults. Her latest book, a memoir, entitled Between the Stops published in October 2019 and follows her novel The End of the Sky published in 2017. For the theatre Sandi co-authored the musical Big Night Out at the Little Sands Picture Palace Theatre (with Dillie Keane), the Shakespeare deconstruction, The Pocket Dream (with Elly Brewer), Charity Begins for Playhouse Live, Bully Boy and Silver Linings. Her adaptation of Treasure Island reopened the Leicester Haymarket Theatre in December 2018. In 2019 her adaptation of Mamma Mia the Party opened at London’s 02 and her new family show Christmas at the (Snow) Globe co-written with Jenifer Toksvig opened at the Globe Theatre, seeing the start of an ongoing relationship with the venue. Sandi is an activist for gender equality. In 2014 she co-founded the Women’s Equality Party.