Helen Lederer began her career in stand-up comedy at London’s famous Comedy Store, as part of the early 80s comedians which included Rik Mayall, Ade Edmonson, and Harry Enfield. Since then, she has gained popularity among the public and developed her profession in various fields including acting, presenting, and writing. In 2015, she published her first book Losing It, fusing her comedic and literary skills into one. Since then, she has worked to support and help female comedians gain recognition in a heavily male-dominated field by encouraging them to be outspoken about their work and launching the CWIP awards for female comedians.
How Helen Lederer Inspires Women in Comedy
It’s strange to think that only 50 years ago, female comedians were extremely taboo as now we are so accustomed to them. Attitudes towards women writers have changed dramatically over the years, but many have seen it as a controversial topic. Women have long been stereotyped as being “unfunny” and limited to jokes about menstruation and cake. Helen Lederer was becoming incredibly tired of this and decided to do something about it.
Helen noticed a pattern of authors winning book awards: they were all men. Even while comedy writers like Marian Keyes, Dolly Alderton, and Jesse Sutanto were nominated for prizes, no woman ever took home the award. Yet, Marian Keyes writes books about women, and they are referred to as “chick lit,” disregarded as being of no interest to any man, while Nick Hornby writes highly amusing books about men, and everyone finds it intriguing and readable.
Disheartened by this, Helen decided to take action and launched the Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) prize. With only 3 women winning a prize for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize in the last 18 years, Helen Lederer created the CWIP awards to give women writers a chance. As well, the award is to acknowledge the works of female comedian writers that often go under the radar but deserve more recognition. Given that women performing in public is a relatively new idea compared to how long men have been doing it, Lederer also started these awards to give women the chance to perform.
Book Helen Lederer
Comedian, writer, actress, and wine enthusiast Helen Lederer is available to book for events over on our website. For further information regarding Helen, please call Celeb Agents on telephone at: 0203 198 2200. Alternatively, follow Celeb Agents on Instagram to keep up to date with our latest news and clients.