Catherine Tate's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Doctor Who (UK) Donna Noble The Catherine Tate Show (UK) Various Cha… Twisted Tales (UK) Wendy Midwich Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy (UK) Catherine T… Wild West (UK) Angela Phil…

Main Movie Roles 2010 - Gulliver's Travels 2007 - Mrs. Ratcliffe's Revolution 2006 - Love and Other Disasters 2006 - Scenes of a Sexual Nature 2006 - Sixty Six

BIOGRAPHY:

Early life and education

Tate was born as Catherine Ford in Bloomsbury, and brought up in the Brunswick Centre.[Her mother, Josephine, was a florist,[3] and Tate has said that the character of Margaret in The Catherine Tate Show, who shrieks at the slightest of disturbances, is based largely on Josephine.
Tate never knew her father,as he left very early on in her life,and consequently,she was brought up in a female-dominated environment,being cared for by her mother,grandmother and her godparents.As a child,Tate suffered from an obsessive-compulsive disorder which centred on word association. For example,Tate was not able to leave a jumper on the floor or it might have brought misfortune to her mother whose name began with the letter "J" like jumper.
She attended St Joseph's, Macklin Street, Holborn, a local Roman Catholic primary school. She then attended Notre Dame High School, Southwark, a South London convent secondary school for girls that was run by nuns.By the time Tate was a teenager, she knew she wanted to follow a professional acting career, and was subsequently sent to a boys' Roman Catholic school, Salesian College in Battersea at the age of 16.The school had the necessary facilities for drama.Tate left school without sitting her A-Levels.She then tried for four years to get a place in the Central School of Speech and Drama, succeeding on her fourth attempt.She studied there for three years,and until the age of 26,she lived in Holborn and Bloomsbury.Prior to getting a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Tate went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School,but left after a week; "Even at that age I realised I wasn't Bonnie Langford.

Personal life

Tate's partner is stage manager Twig Clark.They have one daughter,Erin (born at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in January 2003) with whom Tate was pregnant during the filming of the first series of Wild West and The Catherine Tate Show.Following an emergency caesarean section to deliver Erin,Tate suffered from postnatal depression,from which she only recovered after the filming of the second series.During this difficult period,Clark gave up his work to care for Erin so that Tate could concentrate on her own work.She also suffers from occasional panic attacks.The family currently has a home in Richmond-upon-Thames, London. She has both a cat and a dog,the latter of which was given to her by Jonathan Ross.Regarding her personal outlook,Tate has said "I'm an incredibly negative person,so any form of success is only ever going to be a relief to me and set my default position back to neutral."


TRIVIA:

• Her famous fans include 'Dawn French' (qv), 'Paul O'Grady (I)' (qv), 'Ricky Gervais' (qv) and 'Peter Kay (I)' (qv).
• She spent a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company before she turned to stand-up comedy. Has also performed at the National Theatre.
• Former member of the National Youth Theatre.
• Raised by her mother, Josephine. She has had no contact with her father at all. Josephine had left him before Catherine was born.
• In early July 2007, it was announced that she would be the new companion in _"Doctor Who" (2005)_ (qv), reprising her role as Donna Noble from the 2006 Christmas episode. She will join David Tennant (the Doctor) and Freema Agyeman, the previous companion, halfway through the fourth series. Three years Tennant's senior, she is the first companion older than the actor playing the Doctor she accompanies.
• Catherine grew up in Bloomsbury's iconic Brunswick Centre.
• Has a daughter Erin Johanna, born in January 2003, with her partner Twig Clark. Catherine became pregnant before filming _"Wild West" (2002)_ (qv) and in the first series is very clearly showing under the baggy cardigans and hippy clothes she wears to play Angela.
• Acted as patron of the 2007 Young Writers' Festival at the Royal Court Theatre in London.