Ayesha Hazarika MBE

Ayesha Hazarika MBE was a special adviser to Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband from 2007 to 2015. She is now a much sought after political commentator and broadcaster.

She is a columnist for the London Evening Standard and The Scotsman and writes for many other national publications. She frequently appears on television and radio including the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Newsnight, Sky News, Good Morning Britain, LBC and CNN where she’s a regular pundit on domestic and international affairs.

Ayesha is also a stand-up comedian and last year completed a successful nationwide tour of her show State of the Nation about power, politics and how we lost the plot.

Her first book will be published in May. ‘Punch and Judy Politics’ is a history and insider’s guide to the art of Prime Minister’s Questions.

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Harriet Braine 

Harriet Braine is a musical comedian, who dedicates a remarkably large portion of her oeuvre to Art History.

After winning Best Newcomer at the 2016 Musical Comedy Awards, she started gigging around London and the South East and has played at venues as diverse as Up The Creek, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Brighton Komedia, and that building that looks like a cheese grater. She reached the final of Gilded Balloon’s So You Think You’re Funny? competition, and was crowned the winner of the Funny Women Stage Award 2016. 

Harriet was listed as One of Culture Trip’s 11 up-and-coming comedians to see in London Spring 2017 “Her range of impressions have hit home all over London” (Culture Trip).

2017 saw Harriet debut at the the Edinburgh Fringe with her superbly titled show ‘Total Eclipse of the Art’. The show sold out every day and Harriet made numerous appearances at the BBC Tent including an interview with Jonathan Ross for his BBC Radio 2 ‘The Arts Show’.

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Jen Brister

Jen Brister is a critically acclaimed stand-up comedian, who most recently has appeared on the latest series’ of Live at the Apollo (BBC2) and The Now Show (R4).

She is a regular performer on the UK and international comedy circuits and toured extensively — with comedians Kerry Godliman, Francesca Martinez and Roisin Conaty, among others — and is currently supporting Frankie Boyle in London.

This is as near perfect stand up as I have seen ***** SCOTSGAY
A splendid hour of laughing till your face hurts **** THE LIST
Thoughtful and very funny…Hilarious **** THE ARTS DESK
A confident and charismatic performer **** EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS
“Outrageously Funny” METRO
“Gorgeously talented” TIME OUT, TIM ARTHUR

  (Image credit: Idil Sukan) 

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Chloe Petts

Having started comedy less than three years ago, Chloe Petts is making inroads on the London scene and beyond. With her "compelling presence" (Steve Bennett, Chortle) and "inexhaustibly funny mind" (Diva Magazine), she has been a finalist in a host of competitions, including the Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year 2017, and came runner-up in Funny Women Awards 2017/18. She came third in the Cavendish Arms Summer Competition, has appeared on BBC Radio 4 Xtra and the Channel 4's "Random Acts" and is a member of the Soho Theatre Young Company. She is a founding member of the queer comedy collective "The Lol Word", as well as established London night "Joy Multiplication". She has been selected for the prestigious Pleasance Reserve 2018

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Sophie Duker

Sophie Duker describes herself as a “sexy-cerebral comedy underdog” and is quickly establishing herself as one of the most exciting new acts on the circuit. In 2018 Sophie starred in a comedy pilot for Channel 4 called Riot Girls, as well as a new pilot for Comedy Central UK called What I Wish I’d Said.

She is also a comedy writer whose funnies you might have heard in the following places: the British Broadcasting Co-orporation (Famlam, BBC2; The News Quiz, The Now Show, BBC Radio 4) and Cartoon Network (The Amazing World of Gumball).

Sophie is an alumna of the prestigious Pleasance Comedy Reserve, has been shortlisted for the BBC New Comedy Award and is a previous finalist of the Funny Women Awards.

She founded and hosts MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRLS, an international, intersectional feminist comedy show that appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016 and 2017. Since January 2018 Sophie also hosts Wacky Racists, a ‘crazy stupid cool’ comedy cabaret gameshow, in a monthly residency at the Aces & Eights.