Karen Taylor

Who is Karen Taylor?

Karen Taylor is an English actress and comedienne. She is a former finalist in the prestigious Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award and has fronted her own sketch show on BBC Three, entitled Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor.

Taylor studied Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick 1994-1998, where she got to know other future actors Stephen Merchant and Hannah Waterman.

Taylor was a finalist in the Open Mic Award in 1999, and came further to prominence at the Edinburgh festival in 2000. Her first major television role was as one of the performers in The Sketch Show on ITV, which ran for two series. She has also fronted FAQ U on Channel 4 and appeared performing with Steve Coogan on a Paul Calf DVD.

In 2004, Taylor appeared on an episode of Win, Lose or Draw for ITV. It was the late night version presented by Liza Tarbuck.

In 2007 Taylor fronted her first television sketch show, Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor. It was first aired in June 2007 on BBC Three. Its initial reviews were generally positive. The show's "raunchy" and "lascivious" nature was noted by many of the critics, with almost all of the sketches involving characters whose main interest was 'sex'. Although described as potentially a "one-trick pony", the show was also lauded as "really, really funny" and "more amusing than the last eleventeen sketch shows you can think of". The show returned for a second series in July 2008, but will not be returning for a third. That same month also saw the release of British comedy film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, in which Taylor stars as the mother of the main character Georgia.