1. Janice Connolly was born on 7 August 1953 and is an English actress, comedian and artistic director.
22 Facts About Janice Connolly
1. 2.
In 2017, Janice Connolly was awarded a British Empire Medal in the New Years Honours list for services to community arts in the West Midlands.
3.
Janice Connolly left to study drama at Birmingham Polytechnic.
4.
Janice Connolly was part of the Birmingham independent music scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
5.
Janice Connolly performed with the Surprises and the Evereadies regularly in Moseley at the Fighting Cocks.
6.
Janice Connolly then became known for her character Barbara Nice - a caricature of a middle aged housewife and mother of five from Kings Heath, Birmingham.
7.
Janice Connolly's act is heavily reliant on interaction with the audience, for example, acting as an agony aunt to the audience.
8.
Janice Connolly was performing as Barbara Nice at the Palace nightclub in Levenshulme in 1997 when spotted by Peter Kay at the finals of the Manchester Evening News New Act of the Year.
9.
Janice Connolly went on to appear in several of his television shows.
10.
Janice Connolly played Holy Mary in Phoenix Nights, a part Dave Spikey claimed he wrote with her in mind and which was reprised in Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere written by Kay and Paddy McGuinness.
11.
Janice Connolly later began performing on the British comedy circuit as a headline act and has performed one woman shows across the UK.
12.
Janice Connolly appeared as Barbara Nice in solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2012,2014 and 2018 In October 2015, Connolly recorded a pilot for BBC Radio 2's Comedy Showcase series, which was made available on the BBC iPlayer in November before being broadcast later that month.
13.
In October 2015, Janice Connolly appeared in the stage adaptation of Meera Syal's novel Anita and Me at the Birmingham Rep, for which she was acclaimed for her "comic talent".
14.
In September 2016, Janice Connolly performed at the Keep Corbyn rally in Brighton in support of Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.
15.
On 20 April 2019, Janice Connolly auditioned in the character of Barbara Nice on the television programme Britain's Got Talent.
16.
Janice Connolly made it to the live shows she was later eliminated in the fifth semi-final.
17.
In 2022, Janice Connolly began portraying receptionist Rosie Colton in the BBC soap opera Doctors.
18.
Janice Connolly appeared on a temporary basis between February and September 2022 and again from May to November 2023, before returning permanently in September 2024 up until the conclusion of the programme in November 2024.
19.
Janice Connolly is married with two children and lives in Kings Heath, Birmingham.
20.
Janice Connolly is the artistic director and founder member of the Birmingham-based Women and Theatre.
21.
Janice Connolly is committed to social change through new theatre and drama and in its mission statement, it states that it aims to make heard the voices of those who are not usually listened to.
22.
Janice Connolly ran the Laughing for a Change project, funded by Time to Change, which encouraged comedians and audiences to talk about mental health; this culminated in a stand-up tour in 2014 featuring Seymour Mace, Rob Deering and others.