Miranda Hart

Miranda Katherine Hart Dyke (born 14 December 1972) is an English actress, comedian and writer.

Hart was born on 14 December 1972 in Torquay, Devon, the child of Captain David Hart Dyke, an officer in the Royal Navy and a member of the Hart Dyke family, and Diana Margaret Luce, daughter of Sir William Luce, Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Aden, and sister of Lord Luce.

Hart is from an aristocratic background, but does not consider herself upper class, stating that her aunt and uncle live in Lullingstone Castle.

Her father was commanding officer of HMS Coventry (D118) when it was sunk during the 1982 Falklands conflict, and he was badly burned trying to escape the stricken warship.

She has a younger sister, Alice Louisa Hart Dyke.

Hart grew up in Petersfield, Hampshire.

She was privately educated at Downe House, an independent boarding school for girls near Thatcham, Berkshire.

She was a classmate and friend of the sports presenter Clare Balding, who was head girl.

She attended the University of the West of England, Bristol, graduating with a 2:1 in political science.

She then completed a postgraduate course in acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts.

In 2002, she performed a solo show in Edinburgh, and in 2004 she pitched a comedy show to the BBC.

At her read-through for BBC executives, Absolutely Fabulous writer and star Jennifer Saunders was present.

Before her own series was commissioned, Hart made appearances in various British sitcoms.

In Not Going Out she initially appeared as an acupuncturist.

However, her performance impressed producers so much that they wrote a regular role for her as Barbara, a sarcastic and clumsy cleaner.

Following drama training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, Hart began writing material for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and making appearances in BBC sitcoms, including Hyperdrive (2006–2007) and Not Going Out (2006–2009).

Hart earned a British Comedy Award nomination for her role as Teal in two series of the BBC television comedy sci-fi sitcom Hyperdrive, which ran from January 2006 to August 2007.

She also appeared in even smaller roles in French & Saunders, My Family and Other Animals, Nighty Night, Absolutely Fabulous, The Vicar of Dibley as a speed-date programmer, Lead Balloon, William and Mary, Smack the Pony (for which she wrote and performed in a couple of sketches and a number of video diaries), Stupid!, Monday Monday as Tall Karen, and as a minicab driver in the Channel 5 comedy Angelos, which ran for 6 episodes.

Hart reached a wider audience with her self-driven semi-autobiographical BBC sitcom Miranda, which is based on her earlier BBC Radio 2 radio series Miranda Hart's Joke Shop (2008).

The television sitcom ran for three series and several Christmas specials from 2009 to 2015, and earned her three Royal Television Society awards, four British Comedy Awards and four BAFTA nominations.

She continued to play the part until the production of Miranda in 2009.

Hart is best known for her performance in her self-titled, self-penned and semi-autobiographical sitcom Miranda, which started recording for BBC Two in 2008 and began airing on 9 November 2009.

The situation comedy also features Sarah Hadland, Tom Ellis, Patricia Hodge, James Holmes, and Sally Phillips.

The series is based on Hart's semi-autobiographical writing and followed a television pilot and the BBC Radio 2 comedy Miranda Hart's Joke Shop.

Described as an "old-fashioned" sitcom, it received positive comments from critics and Hart won the 2009 Royal Television Society award for comedy performance for her role in the first series.

She also presented a BBC spoof programme looking back over 2009 called 2009 Unwrapped with Miranda Hart.

A second series was commissioned and filming started in mid-2010.

The series began airing on BBC Two and BBC HD on 15 November 2010.

A similar show looking back over 2010 was also broadcast in December 2010.

She appeared as guest host of Have I Got News for You in October 2009, December 2010 and again in December 2011.

On 27 December, she was a team member on Big Fat Quiz 2011, a quiz about the events of that year presented by Jimmy Carr, appearing alongside David Walliams (team blue).

As a fan of the series, Hart has also appeared twice on Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.

On Boxing Day 2011, she appeared in an episode of Bear Grylls' Wild Weekend.

Hart appeared as Camilla "Chummy" Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne in the BBC drama series Call the Midwife (2012–2015) and made her Hollywood debut in the action comedy film Spy (2015).

Hart has written four books: Is It Just Me? (2012), a semi-autobiographical book; The Best of Miranda (2014), a compilation of scripts from the TV series; Peggy and Me (2016), a description of her life since owning her titular dog; and Miranda Hart's Daily Dose of Such Fun! (2017), in partnership with Comic Relief.

A third series began broadcasting from 26 December 2012 on BBC One.

Repeats of the show have begun airing on UKTV Gold.

She also scaled down one of the Alps with Bear Grylls in a show with him in March 2013.

In 2014, she announced that her sitcom Miranda would come to an end after two final episodes due to air in December 2014.

In 2017, Hart presented the Royal Variety Performance in the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, making her the first solo female presenter in 105 years.