1. Karen Dunbar was born on 1 April 1971 and is a Scottish comedian, actress and writer.
17 Facts About Karen Dunbar
1. 2.
Karen Dunbar first appeared on television on the BBC Scotland sketch comedy series Chewin' the Fat and was given her own show by the channel, The Karen Dunbar Show.
3.
Karen Dunbar voiced Finlay in the 2024 video game Still Wakes the Deep, for which she won the British Academy Games Award for Performer in a Supporting Role.
4.
Karen Dunbar began her career as a DJ and karaoke host before she attended The Comedy Unit's open auditions in 1997 where she was cast in the BBC Scotland comedy sketch show Chewin' the Fat.
5.
Karen Dunbar spoke about how she gave up a lucrative income to work fulltime on the show, but after Series 1 aired she struggled financially.
6.
Karen Dunbar starred in The Karen Dunbar Show, which received two Golden Rose nominations for Best Comedy Show and Karen herself two personal nominations for Best Comedy Performance.
7.
In Christmas 2007, Karen Dunbar made her first appearance in pantomime, at the King's Theatre in Glasgow, playing Nanny Begood in Sleeping Beauty.
8.
Karen Dunbar appeared as a critic on Britain's Got More Talent on 27 May 2008.
9.
In 2009, Karen Dunbar starred in a six-part series of the Scottish comedy Happy Hollidays.
10.
Barrowman and Karen Dunbar sang and performed a showcase of Scottish culture, inventions and places during the broadcast, which reached a global audience of 1.5 billion people.
11.
In October 2017 Karen Dunbar appeared in BBC Scotland's River City for a one-off appearance.
12.
Karen Dunbar played the part of Francesca Simpson, estranged wife of Pete Galloway.
13.
In 2019, Karen Dunbar appeared in the tours Calendar Girls and Still Game Live: The Final Farewell.
14.
Karen Dunbar featured on The Scotsman's "Pink List" of LGBT people contributing to Scotland's cultural life in 2014 and was awarded the Role Model of the Year award at the Icon Awards which celebrate Scotland's LGBTI community in 2015.
15.
Karen Dunbar spoke about her experiences of homophobia and the acceptance she found in Glasgow's LGBT community in a BBC documentary, I Belong to Glasgow, screened in 2014.
16.
Karen Dunbar spoke in 2016 about her plans to marry her female partner.
17.
In 2018, Karen Dunbar gave a TED talk in Glasgow, in which she spoke briefly about her recovery from a challenging upbringing, prior alcoholism and a change in her comedic style, which she later reverted.