Angela Barnes

Angela Barnes (9 November 1976) is a BBC New Comedy Awards winning English comedian and an enthusiastic listener to BBC Radio 4, in particular the programme The News Quiz. One of the regular performers on the show - the late Linda Smith - is her comedy hero.

Barnes was brought up in Maidstone, Kent. She went to Invicta Grammar School then, in 1996, the University of Sussex in Brighton

During the summer of 2008, Barnes lost her father, who was an important influence on her comedy and had always encouraged her to become a comedian. A year after his death, she decided that life was too short not to. She did a 12-week workshop in Brighton and a few months later started her stage career, 18 months later she won the competition.

Since winning the BBC Radio 2's New Comedy Award 2011, Barnes has continued to be a regular on the stand-up circuit, playing even bigger venues. She has also appeared on Weekend Wogan’s Children in Need Special and Russell Kane’s Whistlestop Tour for Radio 2, written for Radio 4’s The News Quiz, played on Eddie Izzard’s Laughs in the Park on BBC Two, appeared on Russell Howard's Good News on BBC Three, developed her own series with BBC Radio Comedy, and performed at the Latitude Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park.

In June 2013, Barnes became noted for an article in The Guardian that followed a blog post she had written, where she spoke about how she felt society treated people deemed ugly and her feelings as someone who self-identified as such. she returned to the subject in 2015 as the subject of her Edinburgh Fringe Show

In November 2013, Barnes joined the cast of the topical show Stand Up for the Week and, in February 2014, appeared on Radio 4's The Now Show. IN November 2014 she appeared on Radio 4's The News Quiz.

She has also appeared on Mock the Week on BBC Two and Dave's As Yet Untitled alongside Alan Davies, Janet Street-Porter and Michael Ball and in Mid 2016 toured New Zealand.

In December 2016 it was announced she will be taking over as the host of the show Newsjack

You Can't Take It With You

Stand-up series. Based on her critically acclaimed début show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014, You Can't Take It With You, the show covers important topics such as life, love, family, work and death.

The four-episode series is in part a tribute to her characterful late father, who was a sex shop manager, naturist, and an enthusiast for caravans and pranks, and a heavy influence on Barnes. He taught her a 'Carpe diem' approach to life, and the show takes its name from his motto.

• BBC New Comedy Awards 2011: Winner