33 Facts About Josie Lawrence

Josie Lawrence was born on Wendy Lawrence; 6 June 1959 and is an English actress and comedian.

Josie Lawrence's parents were Bert Lawrence and Kathleen Lawrence, nee Griffin, who were married in 1948.

Josie Lawrence has twin siblings, John and Janet, who are ten years her senior.

Josie Lawrence wanted to be an actress at the early age of 5 and at 16 joined the Barlow Players in Oldbury.

Josie Lawrence studied at Dartington College of Arts from 1978 to 1981, receiving a Bachelor of Arts honours degree.

Josie Lawrence's first acting role was as a young boy in a production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at the Half Moon Theatre.

Josie Lawrence starred as the title character in the 1993 Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith production of the musical Moll Flanders.

Josie Lawrence appeared in Faust and The Cherry Orchard and starred as Benedick in an all-female production of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe, having played Beatrice previously at Manchester's Royal Exchange.

Josie Lawrence made her West End theatre debut in 2001 taking over the lead role of Anna in the stage musical The King and I, replacing Elaine Paige.

In 2008, Josie Lawrence took the lead role in Tom Stoppard's Hapgood at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and later at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in which she was a secret spymaster given the task of exposing a traitor who is leaking vital information to the Russians.

Josie Lawrence appeared as Madame Ranevskaya in a new version of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, translated by Tom Stoppard, at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in autumn 2010.

Josie Lawrence was the first female performer to appear on the show, featuring in both the original pilot episode and the first broadcast episode.

Josie Lawrence was featured on Whose Line until its ninth series in 1997 and 1998, which was the last of the UK series to actually be filmed in the UK.

Josie Lawrence performed in two episodes of the American edition of the show in 1999.

Josie Lawrence went on to perform in Sealed with a Loving Kiss and Lunch in the Park as part of the Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's.

Josie Lawrence appeared in the 1999 made-for-television film The Flint Street Nativity as both Debbie Bennett and Debbie's mother.

Josie Lawrence has appeared in the BBC One drama series Robin Hood and as Mrs Jiniwin in the 2007 ITV adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop.

Josie Lawrence was in EastEnders from March 2009 to February 2010.

Josie Lawrence played Manda Best, an old flame of Minty Peterson.

Josie Lawrence has appeared as a guest on the panel show games QI and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

In 2010, Josie Lawrence appeared in series 25, episode 3 of Casualty named "The Chaos Theory".

Josie Lawrence played Mrs Janet Haines, head teacher of a school where sixteen children were admitted to the emergency department having taken LSD.

Josie Lawrence provided the voice of "The Brain" in the 2015 BBC Two quiz show Beat The Brain.

Josie Lawrence starred in three series of the improvised comedy series The Masterson Inheritance from 1993 to 1995 on BBC Radio 4 alongside Paul Merton, Phelim McDermott, Caroline Quentin, Lee Simpson and Jim Sweeney.

Josie Lawrence has starred in three other BBC Radio 4 comedy series: the science fiction comedy Married in 1996 and the dark comedy series Vent in 2006 as well as appearing in a Galton and Simpson Radio Playhouse 50th Anniversary recording of Clicquot et Fils alongside Richard Griffiths and Roger Lloyd-Pack that originally aired on 29 December 1998.

Josie Lawrence played the role of 'Amanda' in the comedy series Reluctant Persuaders on BBC Radio 4.

Josie Lawrence made her debut appearance in the long-running BBC Radio 4 show Just a Minute on 7 January 2008 and returned again in the following series.

In December 2014, Josie Lawrence played the role of Agnes Nutter in an adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's book Good Omens for BBC Radio 4.

Josie Lawrence has lent her voice to several audiobooks, the majority of which were books for children.

Josie Lawrence has recorded several of the books in Roger Hargreaves' Little Miss series, namely, Bossy, Giggles, Trouble, Tiny, Sunshine, Naughty, Somersault and Neat and four of Jacqueline Wilson's books, Secrets, The Illustrated Mum, Bad Girls and The Bed and Breakfast Star.

Josie Lawrence has recorded books from Emma Thomson's Felicity Wishes, Eric Hill's Spot the Dog and Tony Bradman's Dilly the Dinosaur, as well as Philip Ridley's Mercedes Ice and Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's Room on the Broom as well as the 2005 Muffin The Mule story books for a grand CD release.

Josie Lawrence had to wear a knee brace throughout the trek because of damage to her anterior cruciate ligament.

Josie Lawrence has two cats, a long-haired ginger and a black-and-white, named after the Black Country characters Aynuk and Ayli, who feature prominently in jokes about Black Country dialect.