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Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Birgitte Toksvig OBE (/ˈtɒksvɪɡ/; Danish: [ˈsænti ˈtsʰʌksˌviˀ]; born 3 May 1958) is a Danish-British broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the now-defunct Women's Equality Party in 2015. She has written plays, novels and books for children. In 1994, she came out as a lesbian.
Toksvig took over from Stephen Fry as host of the BBC television quiz show QI in 2016 (series 'N'), having been a guest several times. She also spent ten years hosting The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4. From 2017 to 2020, she was co-presenter of The Great British Bake Off, alongside comedian Noel Fielding. In 2020, she stepped down and was replaced by Matt Lucas.
Toksvig was the president of the Women of the Year Lunch from 2015 to 2017.
Toksvig was born in 1958 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her father, Claus Toksvig, was a Danish journalist, broadcaster and foreign correspondent; as a result, Toksvig spent most of her youth outside Denmark, mostly in New York City. Her mother, Julie Anne Toksvig (née Brett), is British. She has an older brother, Nick, who is a journalist, and a younger sister, Jenifer, a librettist, who was born when Sandi was 12. When Sandi was 24, she was appointed Jenifer's legal guardian. In 1969, her father covered the landing of the first man on the moon from mission control; she was holding the hand of Neil Armstrong's secretary during the landing. While her father was based in London, she attended Tormead School, an independent girls' school near Guildford. Her first job, at the age of 18, was as a follow spot operator for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
Toksvig is a graduate of Girton College, Cambridge, where she gained a first class honours degree in archaeology and anthropology, after changing from law after her Part I examinations. In 2019, Toksvig said in her memoirs that she was nearly expelled from her Cambridge college at the end of her first year, as the college council objected to her having another woman staying overnight in her room in college.
When I see comedian—and 'comedienne', of course I hate it—I think 'Oh, really?’ because I think of myself as a writer and broadcaster. Sometimes it's funny but I've just done a piece for Radio 3 all about Mary Wollstonecraft, and there's not a joke in it.
Toksvig began her comedy career at Girton, where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman show at the Footlights. She was there at the same time as Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery and Emma Thompson, and wrote additional material for the Perrier award-winning Cambridge Footlights Revue. She was also a member of the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society.
In 1982 she wrote for the Radio 4 comedy programme Three Plus One alongside Ian Hislop (with whom she would appear on the first episode of Have I Got News For You), Guy Jenkin and Andrea Solomons.
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Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Birgitte Toksvig OBE (/ˈtɒksvɪɡ/; Danish: [ˈsænti ˈtsʰʌksˌviˀ]; born 3 May 1958) is a Danish-British broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer on British radio, stage and television. She is also a political activist, having co-founded the now-defunct Women's Equality Party in 2015. She has written plays, novels and books for children. In 1994, she came out as a lesbian.
Toksvig took over from Stephen Fry as host of the BBC television quiz show QI in 2016 (series 'N'), having been a guest several times. She also spent ten years hosting The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4. From 2017 to 2020, she was co-presenter of The Great British Bake Off, alongside comedian Noel Fielding. In 2020, she stepped down and was replaced by Matt Lucas.
Toksvig was the president of the Women of the Year Lunch from 2015 to 2017.
Toksvig was born in 1958 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her father, Claus Toksvig, was a Danish journalist, broadcaster and foreign correspondent; as a result, Toksvig spent most of her youth outside Denmark, mostly in New York City. Her mother, Julie Anne Toksvig (née Brett), is British. She has an older brother, Nick, who is a journalist, and a younger sister, Jenifer, a librettist, who was born when Sandi was 12. When Sandi was 24, she was appointed Jenifer's legal guardian. In 1969, her father covered the landing of the first man on the moon from mission control; she was holding the hand of Neil Armstrong's secretary during the landing. While her father was based in London, she attended Tormead School, an independent girls' school near Guildford. Her first job, at the age of 18, was as a follow spot operator for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
Toksvig is a graduate of Girton College, Cambridge, where she gained a first class honours degree in archaeology and anthropology, after changing from law after her Part I examinations. In 2019, Toksvig said in her memoirs that she was nearly expelled from her Cambridge college at the end of her first year, as the college council objected to her having another woman staying overnight in her room in college.
When I see comedian—and 'comedienne', of course I hate it—I think 'Oh, really?’ because I think of myself as a writer and broadcaster. Sometimes it's funny but I've just done a piece for Radio 3 all about Mary Wollstonecraft, and there's not a joke in it.
Toksvig began her comedy career at Girton, where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman show at the Footlights. She was there at the same time as Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery and Emma Thompson, and wrote additional material for the Perrier award-winning Cambridge Footlights Revue. She was also a member of the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society.
In 1982 she wrote for the Radio 4 comedy programme Three Plus One alongside Ian Hislop (with whom she would appear on the first episode of Have I Got News For You), Guy Jenkin and Andrea Solomons.