Laura Solon

{{Short description|English actress, comedian and screenwriter (born 1979)}}

{{Infobox comedian

| name = Laura Solon

| image = File:Laura Solon.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Solon in 2009

| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Laura Madalene Solon

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1979|4}}

| birth_place = Merton, London, England{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

| medium = Television, theatre, radio

| nationality = English

| active = 2004–present

| genre = Sketch comedy, stand-up, comedy films

| notable_work = Man Stroke Woman
Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking
Laura, Ben and Him
Harry & Paul
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder

}}

Laura Madalene Solon (born April 1979){{citation needed|date=February 2020}} is an English actress, comedian, screenwriter, and winner of the 2005 Perrier Comedy Award. She was the second woman to win as a solo performer, after Jenny Eclair in 1995.

Background

Solon was raised in Great Kimble near Aylesbury.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} She attended Downe House School followed by Worcester College, Oxford where she received a scholarship{{cite web |url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/1999-00/weekly/281099/coll.htm |title=Oxford University Gazette |publisher=Ox.ac.uk |date=28 October 1999 |accessdate=2010-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011230114253/http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/1999-00/weekly/281099/coll.htm |archive-date=30 December 2001 |url-status=dead }} to read English and started writing and performing in the Oxford Revue.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

Career

Solon tried being a stand up comedian but found character comedy suited her better.{{cite web|last=Lee |first=Veronica |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/3646209/Perrier-winner-I-shouldnt-have-been-on-the-list.html |title='Perrier winner? I shouldn't have been on the list' |work=The Telegraph|date=31 August 2005 |accessdate=2022-04-27}}

In 2005 she won the Perrier Award for her one-woman Edinburgh Fringe show Kopfraper's Syndrome: One Man and His Incredible Mind. Following this the BBC and Channel 4 were keen to acquire her to produce material for them, and in April 2006 it was announced by the BBC that Solon had been signed to develop projects for them on radio and TV.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/04_april/05/solon.shtml |title=Press Office - Laura Solon signs to |publisher=BBC |accessdate=2010-04-24}}

The first series of Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking, a sketch and character comedy series, ran on BBC Radio 4 in January and February 2007. The second series ran in May and June 2008, and the third in November 2009.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}}

She recorded a BBC sitcom pilot from the creators of People Like Us, featuring Man Stroke Woman's Daisy Haggard, called Great News.{{cite web|url=http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2006/11/16/4705/comedy_news |title=Comedy news : News 2006 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide |publisher=Chortle |date=16 November 2006 |accessdate=2010-04-24}}[http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/1064610.sitcom_makes_the_news/ Great News]

She appeared in Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's sketch show Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul, broadcast from 2007 on BBC One. She was seen in a sketch show for ITV2 Laura, Ben and Him (2008) with Marek Larwood and Ben Willbond. She was part of Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder, shown on ITV1.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}}

Alongside Tony Hawks and Angus Deayton she appeared in the feature film Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, which was recorded in 2010 and released in 2012.

In the first half of 2010 she toured with Rabbit Faced Story Soup, a play set in a publisher's office in which she played every character. It contained characters from her radio show, Talking and Not Talking, including Carol Price, a divorcee children's author, and Gwynneth the inept call centre worker. New characters included Marcia, an American super publishing agent.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}}

Her award-winning{{cite web|title=Accolade Competition Deadline: August 26, 2011|url=http://www.accoladecompetition.org/PDF_Winners/WinnersAccoladeDeadline082611.pdf|work=The Accolade Film, Television, New Media & Videography Awards|accessdate=15 December 2011|date=26 August 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425092420/http://www.accoladecompetition.org/PDF_Winners/WinnersAccoladeDeadline082611.pdf|archivedate=25 April 2012}}{{cite web|title=Aesthetica Short Film Festival|url=http://www.asff.co.uk/|publisher=Aesthetica Magazine Ltd|accessdate=15 December 2011|date=6 November 2011}}{{cite web|title=Tooty's Wedding|url=http://www.lacomedyfest.com/schedule/film/tootys-wedding/|publisher=LA Comedy Fest|accessdate=15 December 2011|year=2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117122752/http://www.lacomedyfest.com/schedule/film/tootys-wedding/|archivedate=17 November 2011}}{{cite web|title=Work : Laura Solon|url=http://www.laurasolon.com/?page_id=5|accessdate=15 December 2011}} 2010 short film Tooty's Wedding, which Solon co-wrote with Ben Willbond, was screened as part of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.{{cite web|last=Mann|first=Andrea|title=British Comedy Short 'Tooty's Wedding' Is Sundance-Bound (EXCLUSIVE CLIP)|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/15/tootys-wedding-sundance_n_1150288.html|work=Huffington Post UK|publisher=Aol (UK)|accessdate=15 December 2011|date=15 December 2011}}

In 2011 Solon was one of the players in the BBC Two improvisational show Fast and Loose, hosted by Hugh Dennis.{{cite web|url=http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/fast_and_loose/ |title=British Comedy Guide entry for Fast and Loose |publisher=British Comedy Guide |accessdate=2011-01-15}}

=Screenwriter=

Solon has adapted comedy film screenplays for movies such as Office Christmas Party, and has had original screenplays (Work It and Bodyguards) optioned by Bluegrass Films.{{cite news |url=https://deadline.com/2016/08/bodyguards-pitch-bluegrass-films-universal-laura-solon-1201802276/ |first=Anita |accessdate=27 June 2017 |date=15 August 2016 |website=Deadline Hollywood |title=Universal Pictures Picks Up 'Bodyguards' Pitch For Bluegrass Films |last=Busch}} Solon has also written episodes for the fifth and sixth seasons of Hot in Cleveland.

Works

=''Kopfraper's Syndrome: One Man and His Incredible Mind''=

The title is a holdover from an entirely different show that Solon had planned to perform with a male partner.{{cite web|last=Lee |first=Veronica |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/3646209/Perrier-winner-I-shouldnt-have-been-on-the-list.html |title='Perrier winner? I shouldn't have been on the list' |work=The Telegraph|date=31 August 2005 |accessdate=2022-04-27}} When the partner dropped out she rewrote the show in the three weeks leading up to the festival but retained the title in order not to negate the value of the advance publicity or confuse those who had already purchased tickets.

Solon plays eight different characters in the show, which consists of sketches of varying lengths, including:

An Andrew Lloyd Webber fan
Caroline, an Australian disabled housewife who is possessed by the ghost of Diana, Princess of Wales
Karen, a prize-winning beautician
Borgesia, a Polish story-teller
A wedding planner from Rotherham
A hunter who does not believe in zebras
Katrina, a corporate high-flier with an irrational terror of the Chinese
A marketing assistant forced to dress as a bookworm

As a Perrier award-winning show it secured a run in London's West End, at the Soho Theatre, in November 2005. Solon also received £7,500 with the prize.

=Radio=

Ed Reardon's Week – Lucy, in Series 3
Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking (2007–09)
Frank Skinner{{Broken anchor|date=2024-03-25|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=Frank Skinner#Absolute Radio|reason=Anchor "Frank Skinner#Absolute Radio" links to a specific web page: "Absolute Radio". The anchor (Absolute Radio) has been deleted.}} on Absolute Radio – (2009–12)
Dave Gorman on Absolute Radio – Stand-in for Danielle Ward (2010)