Gourt Home::Gourt :: Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander (born January 3, 1971) is an English actress born in London, best known for her roles in British comedy series.
Biography
Sarah Alexander was born Sarah Smith in London. Her father, Frank Smith, was a television producer and director who worked on factual programmes such as Panorama so she grew up around a television studio environment. At the age of 18 she left home after completing her A-levels and travelled to the Edinburgh Festival in the hope of getting her start in acting, her parents were very much against the idea and wanted her to continue on into university. After beginning her career in theatre, she originally planned to become a classical actress, and had an unsuccessful audition with the Royal Shakespeare Company early in her career.
In the late 1990s she met Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong, who became close friends and frequent collaborators, appearing on their Armstrong and Miller sketch show (1997-2001) and beginning to move into comedy acting, which she has specialised in ever since. Other work on sketch shows included Smith and Jones (1997-98) and Smack the Pony (1999-2003), also writing material for three episodes of the latter.
In 2000 she appeared in cult sci-fi comedy The Strangerers, as well as becoming new co-host of the current affairs satire programme The 11 O'Clock Show, alongside Jon Holmes, as well as making her debut in perhaps her best known role as Susan Walker in the BBC sitcom Coupling, which ran for four series from 2000 to 2004.
Her most recent British TV roles have been as Mel in The Worst Week of My Life, starring again alongside Ben Miller, and as Angela Hunter in hospital-based comedy Green Wing, created by Smack The Pony creator Victoria Pile.
Now one of Britain's most established comedy actresses, she is now concentrating her efforts on breaking onto the scene in America. She appeared as Alice Fletcher in the NBC comedy Teachers and will also play supporting roles in the upcoming movies I Could Never Be Your Woman (due for release late 2006) and Stardust (currently filming and due for release in 2007). According to the BBC website, she is also writing her own comedy series about journalists with two writers of the Armstrong and Miller production team.
She is currently dating theatre actor Gerard Harper and had previously been linked with Peter Serafinowicz, star and creator of Look Around You.
Trivia
She is a fluent French and Spanish speaker, and her brother works as a translator.
She is 5'4" (1.63m) tall and weighs 7-8 stone.
Her other talents and interests include horse riding, tennis, swimming, karate and singing.
Early in her career she was often mistaken for Samantha Janus, but her fame means this now rarely happens.
External links
1971 births | Living people | English actors | Londoners | Green Wing actors | Red Dwarf actors
"Sarah Alexander"