Bio
Catherine Tate is an English comedienne and actress best known for writing and starring in her own award-winning sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show, from 2004-2007.
A graduate of the Central School of Speech and Drama and Royal National Theatre, London-born Tate spent a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company before turning her hand to stand-up comedy.
She appeared in the Channel 4 sketch show Barking, That Peter Kay Thing and The Harry Hill Show before becoming part of Lee Mack's Perrier-nominated New Bits show at Edinburgh in 2000. She returned to the festival the following year with her own, one-woman show.
Parts in Big Train, Attention Scum and the television version of the satirical website TVGoHome soon followed.
After being spotting by a casting director at Edinburgh, Tate was offered the role of Angela in the Dawn French vehicle Wild West and soon after filming wrapped, her own sketch show on BBC2, The Catherine Tate Show, was commissioned.
In it, she revives the character-based comedy that brought her such acclaim at Edinburgh. The series was a sleeper hit in 2004.
In 2006 Tate played the role of Donna Noble in Doctor Who, a woman in a wedding dress who suddenly appears in the TARDIS at the end of the episode "Doomsday". The following episode, the Christmas special entitled "The Runaway Bride", saw Tate's character in a major role, where she was temporarily the Doctor's companion.
Tate returned to Doctor Who in 2008 to reprise the role of Donna Noble as the Doctor's companion throughout the fourth season, which was shown on BBC One starting on 5 April 2008 for a 13-week run.