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Fern Brady
Born
Fern Marie Brady

(1986-05-26) 26 May 1986 (age 38)
Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh (BA)
Occupations
  • Comedian
  • podcaster
  • writer
Years active2010–present
Websitefernbradycomedian.com

Fern Marie Brady (born 26 May 1986) is a Scottish comedian, podcaster and writer. She achieved fame as a stand-up comedian at competitions such as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She was then invited on to panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats. In 2020 she co-created the podcast Wheel of Misfortune.

Brady was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum in 2021. She has been active within the field of autism education since learning of her diagnosis. She has written about life as an autistic person in her 2023 memoir Strong Female Character.

Early life

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Brady was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, where she grew up. She went to school at St. Kentigern's Academy, Blackburn in West Lothian. She is of Irish descent, has family roots in County Donegal, and grew up within the Catholic Church in Scotland.[1] Her father, Paul Brady, worked in management at the truck company Scania, and her mother worked at Tesco. Her parents have divorced.[2]

Career

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While at the University of Edinburgh, Brady was editor of The Student, a weekly newspaper produced by students. To finance her university studies, she worked as a stripper.[2] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature.[3] Following university, Brady originally trained to become a journalist, although she had been thinking about becoming a stand-up comedian since 2006.[4] In 2009, she was an intern at Fest Magazine, a free magazine covering the Edinburgh Festival. One of her assignments there was to write an article about a comedy critic trying stand-up.[5][6] Brady describes the experience as "the push I needed to realise it was what I wanted to do".[4] Her first professional gig was in May 2010.[4]

She reached the finals of "So You Think You're Funny" at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where she was placed joint third; the finals of the Piccadilly Comedy Club new act competition in 2012, and the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year in 2013. She has appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Seann Walsh's Late Night Comedy Spectacular, The Alternative Comedy Experience, BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz, series 3 of Live from the BBC, series 14 of Live at the Apollo and on series 3 of Frankie Boyle's New World Order. She has written for The Guardian.[7]

In 2020, Brady and fellow comedian Alison Spittle started a podcast for the BBC called Wheel of Misfortune.

In late 2021, Brady co-presented the Dave travelogue British as Folk alongside fellow comedians Ivo Graham and Darren Harriott.[8] In January 2022, Brady began a 25-date tour of her new show, Autistic Bikini Queen.[9] In June 2022, Brady was confirmed to be a contestant in the 14th series of Taskmaster, which started airing in September 2022.[10] Brady described this year, when filming Taskmaster, as the "nicest ... of [her] life" and the show as "accidentally ... a really good format for autistic people" because, unlike panel shows, Taskmaster "is very clearly laid out. Every day, you are going to do nine tasks and you are just interacting with one other person".[11] The comedian saw her time on Taskmaster as more worthwhile than doing a documentary on autism because, through it, she believed she could reach more autistic people and "people [would] see a happy positive depiction of neurodiversity".[12] The show also helped her become more accepting of herself as an autistic person.[12]

In 2023, her memoir, Strong Female Character, was published by Brazen.[13][14][15] Brady won the non-fiction section of the 2023 Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards,[16] and the non-fiction category in the inaugural Nero book awards.[17]

Personal life

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Brady is bisexual.[18] She was misdiagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) at the age of 16,[19] and revealed in 2021 that she has been diagnosed as autistic.[20][21][22] A reason Brady is glad to be autistic is because it meant she was less influenced by her peers:

... I would rather be an autistic woman than a neurotypical one. I always felt like women seem to look left and right at what other women are doing and are influenced by their peers. If I’d have been more influenced by my peers, I don’t know what I would have ended up doing.[11]

She has also said, "an autistic brain [can] provide an escape route from the traditional paths laid out for women".[14]

References

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  1. ^ "Scottish comic Fern Brady on her Donegal roots, Shaun Ryder and the Edinburgh Fringe". The Irish News. 12 February 2016. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Fern Brady and life as a stripper". Evening Times. 25 July 2018. Archived from the original on 14 August 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  3. ^ FernBrady (23 April 2024). "Can someone change m…". r/taskmaster. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "Interview with Fern Brady". Comedy Blogedy. 1 February 2013. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  5. ^ "Faking it". Fest-mag.com. 19 August 2009. Archived from the original on 14 August 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Scottish Comedian Fern Brady's 'Take No Prisoners' Beauty Routine". Viva.co.nz. 16 April 2018. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  7. ^ "Fern Brady". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 November 2023.
  8. ^ Golby, Joel. "British As Folk: three comedians in a campervan have fun with history". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  9. ^ Bennett, Steve (30 April 2021). "Fern Brady announces 2022 tour : Other news 2021 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 April 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
  10. ^ "Dara Ó Briain, Sarah Millican & more confirmed for Taskmaster season 14". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 23 June 2022. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  11. ^ a b "Taskmaster's Fern Brady: How a late diagnosis of autism explained my meltdowns". The Independent. 21 February 2023. Archived from the original on 22 February 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Taskmaster's Fern Brady reflects on importance of "happy, positive" representation of autism on the show". Digital Spy. 3 December 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  13. ^ Renton, Catherine (15 February 2020). "Fern Brady - Strong Female Character". The Wee Wee Review. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  14. ^ a b Brady, Fern (14 February 2023). "Why autistic women are often 'ahead of the curve' in social justice and feminist activism". Glamour UK. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  15. ^ "'Everything ends up about death and shagging': Fern Brady on comedy, autism and intrusive thoughts". The Guardian. 24 January 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  16. ^ "Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2023". National Book Tokens. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  17. ^ Creamer, Ella (30 January 2024). "Paul Murray and Fern Brady win inaugural Nero book awards". The Guardian.
  18. ^ "Fern Brady Live at the Apollo". YouTube. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
  19. ^ Brady, Fern (14 July 2015). "I came out of a teenage mental health unit worse than when I went in". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  20. ^ Brady, Fern [@FernBrady] (7 January 2021). "Got autism diagnosis this week. Told my dad who responded by asking me what I had for dinner tonight. 😂 I guess this saves me working out which parent has it" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 6 April 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2021 – via Twitter.
  21. ^ "BBC Sounds - 1800 Seconds on Autism, Fern Brady on her recent autism diagnosis". BBC. 25 February 2021. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  22. ^ "Stand-up is the only time I feel comfortable". Your Autism. National Autistic Society. Autumn 2022. pp. 16–18.
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