Nationality British, Australian Years active 2007–present | Subject(s) Sexism, religion Name Deborah Frances-White | |
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Website www.deborahfrances-white.com Books The Improv Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Improvising in Comedy, Theatre, and Beyond Medium Stand-up comedy, Improvisation | ||
Charisma versus stage fright deborah frances white tedxcambridgeuniversity
Deborah Frances-White is a comedian and writer who also delivers seminars to women in business on subjects including charisma, diversity and inclusion. She has both British and Australian citizenship. She hosts the podcasts Global Pillage and The Guilty Feminist.
Contents
- Charisma versus stage fright deborah frances white tedxcambridgeuniversity
- Telling stories to inspire change a breakfast briefing with deborah frances white
- Early life
- Religion
- Career
- Corporate work
- Writing
- References
Telling stories to inspire change a breakfast briefing with deborah frances white
Early life
Deborah was born in Australia and adopted at ten days old. She moved to the UK and attended Oxford University and founded improv theatre company The Spontaneity Shop of which she is a director.
Religion
Deborah became a Jehovah's Witness while still a teenager. Her years in the religion and how she left it were the focus of her 2012 Edinburgh Fringe stand-up comedy show and two of the episodes of her BBC Radio 4 show Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice.
Career
After developing a number of improvisation formats at The Spontaneity Shop (including the improvised romantic comedy DreamDate which had a pilot made for ITV) Deborah turned to stand-up comedy. Her first significant solo show was How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You which she performed at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007 and at The Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2008 where she also hosted The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow.
Deborah's recent shows have been more personal. Cult Following (2012) dealt with her experiences as a teenage Jehovah's Witness, Half a Can of Worms (2013) was about tracking down her biological family and Friend of a Friend of Dorothy (2015) was about feminism, sexism and homophobia.
Deborah has continued to develop new improvisation formats. Voices in Your Head is a show which allows comedians, improvisers and actors to create comedy characters while the audience watches. Guests have included Phill Jupitus, Sara Pascoe, Russell Tovey, Mike McShane, Hannibal Buress and others. In 2015 she created The Beau Zeaux a long-form improvised comedy featuring a rotating cast including Marcus Brigstocke, Thom Tuck, Rachel Parris, Brendan Murphy, Ed Coleman, Milly Thomas and Pippa Evans. Guests have included Russell Tovey and Dan Starkey.
Her BBC Radio 4 series Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice was first broadcast in spring 2015 and featured stories about her adoption, green card marriage, and quest to find her biological family. The episodes were titled "Half a Can of Worms", "Cult Following", "Visa Issues" and "Who's Your Daddy"? In January 2016, The Writers Guild of Great Britain awarded Deborah Best Radio Comedy at their annual ceremony. A second series was first broadcast in autumn 2016.
With Sofie Hagen she created the podcast The Guilty Feminist and she is also the creator and host of the podcast Global Pillage.
Corporate work
Deborah also regularly appears at corporate events speaking about confidence, charisma, diversity and sexism. Her TEDx talk on Charisma vs Stage-Fright was cited by James Caan as the secret of his presenting skills.
Writing
With her writing partner Philippa Waller, she contributed an episode of Young Dracula in 2014. She has co-written two books: The Improv Handbook with Tom Salinsky and Off the Mic with Marsha Shandur both published by Bloomsbury. Deborah writes for Standard Issue Magazine.