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Sophie Duker

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Sophie Duker
Duker at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Born1989 or 1990 (age 34–35)[1]
London, England
Alma materWadham College, Oxford
OccupationComedian
Years active2015–present
Websitesophieduker.com

Sophie Duker (born 1989/1990)[1] is a British stand-up comedian and writer.[2]

Early life

[edit]

Duker was born in London to first-generation immigrants from West Africa. Her mother is from Cameroon and her father is from Ghana.[3] She attended North London Collegiate School until 2008[4] before studying French and English at Wadham College, Oxford.[5] She joined the Oxford Imps in her first year at university.[6]

Career

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An alumna of the Pleasance Comedy Reserve, Duker was shortlisted for the Funny Women award in 2015.[7] She founded and hosted the "Manic Pixie Dream Girls" show as part of Edinburgh's Free Festival in 2016 and 2017.[8]

She has written for the Huffington Post[9] and she was an assistant producer for Frankie Boyle's New World Order and a researcher for 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. In 2019, she appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats,[10] Frankie Boyle's New World Order, Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions Apply,[11] and Mock the Week,[12] and in 2020 in 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

In 2017, Duker appeared in a Turtle Canyon short titled "The Dates", which explores bisexual dating culture.[13]

In 2018, Duker set up the comedy night "Wacky Racists", which currently has a monthly residency at 2Northdown in Kings Cross, London, and performs spin-off shows at festivals and events across the UK. In December 2019, Soho Theatre hosted a seasonal Christmas "Wacky Racists" special.

Duker co-starred in the pilot for a hidden camera sketch show on Channel 4 called Riot Girls[14] as well as on the Comedy Central UK comedy show What I Wish I’d Said in 2018.[15]

Her first stand-up show, "Diet Woke", premiered in 2018.[16] She took her 2019 show, "Venus", to the Brighton Fringe[17] and the Edinburgh Fringe, performing at the Edinburgh Pleasance from 31 July to 25 August 2019.[18] In 2019, Duker appeared on the hip-hop comedy panel show Don't Hate the Playaz.[19]

In September 2020, during one of Duker's appearances on Frankie Boyle's New World Order, the host Frankie Boyle proposed the motion "Black Lives Matter Glosses Over The Complexities Of A World Where We All Need To Come Together And Kill Whitey". A clip of Duker making a joke which repeated the phrase "kill whitey"—a phrase pre-approved by the BBC, according to Duker—was widely spread online.[20] Duker joked about the phrase in the context of discussing her views on whiteness and capitalism in response to a 1970s clip of James Baldwin talking about black power.[20][21] Duker described that "far-right blogs to mainstream tabloids" began covering the story six days after the episode aired,[20] with the Daily Mail's Sarah Vine criticising the comments as "hateful dogma",[22] after which 1,300 complaints were made to the BBC.[21] The BBC responded that the content was "within audience expectations for a post-watershed, topical, satirical programme from a comedian whose style and tone are well-established", later dismissing the complaints.[23][24] A Greater Manchester police hate crime investigation was opened after a report in early January and closed a week later with no action.[21][25][22] Duker was subject to racist harassment on social media over the comments.[20][21][26]

In 2021, she was hired by Rumpus Media to co-present a new female-led topical panel show on Comedy Central[27] called Yesterday, Today and The Day Before[28] alongside fellow comedians Suzi Ruffell and Maisie Adam. However, Duker quit after the first episode in protest over cuts to her monologue about conflict between Israel and Palestine, with comedian Kemah Bob and the show's assistant producer also quitting the show alongside her.[29][30][31]

Duker's first gig after lockdown was a fundraiser for Reclaim These Streets in July 2021.[32] In 2022, she won the thirteenth season of the comedy panel game show Taskmaster, and the quiz show Celebrity Mastermind. She won her episode of the latter with the specialist subject of Alan Bennett's play The History Boys.[33][34] She returned to the Edinburgh Festival line-up in 2022 with a show titled "Hag".[35]

Personal life

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Duker identifies as queer.[36]

Filmography

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Year Title Notes
2017 The Dates Short film
2019–present Frankie Boyle's New World Order 10 episodes
2019–2020 Mock the Week 3 episodes
2019–2020 8 Out of 10 Cats 2 episodes
2019 The Dog Ate My Homework 1 episode
2019 Don't Hate the Playaz 1 episode
2019 Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions Apply 1 episode
2020 Roast Battle 1 episode
2020 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown 1 episode
2020 Comedy Game Night 1 episode
2020 Jonathan Ross' Comedy Club 1 episode
2020 Sorry, I Didn't Know 1 episode
2021 The Science(ish) of Stranger Things 1 episode
2021 The Last Leg 1 episode
2021 Richard Osman's House of Games 5 episodes
2021 Yesterday, Today and The Day Before 1 episode
2021 Joe Lycett's Got Your Back 2 episodes
2021 Comedians Giving Lectures 1 episode
2022 Taskmaster Winner, series 13
2022 Celebrity Mastermind Episode 10; Winner
2024 Taskmaster Runner-up, Champion of Champions III
2024 Richard Osman's House of Games 5 episodes, Redemption week

References

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  1. ^ a b Paskett, Zoe (10 July 2019). "Comedian Sophie Duker on her new show Venus and smashing stereotypes". Evening Standard. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  2. ^ "The funny thing about... privilege". BBC Ideas.
    - Brinkhurst-Cuff, Charlie (6 August 2018). "'I felt like the only black person doing improv': Why is the Edinburgh Fringe still so white?". inews.
    - "Sophie Duker - Maximum Fun". www.maximumfun.org.
  3. ^ "RHLSTP Edinburgh 2019 04 - Sophie Duker & Vikki Stone". acast.com. 6 August 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
    - BBC Ideas (30 January 2019). "'I'm a triple threat minority': Comedian Sophie Duker on privilege - BBC Ideas" – via YouTube.
  4. ^ "Sophie Duker (ONL 2008)". ONL Newsletter. Spring Term 2022: 5. 20 January 2023.
  5. ^ Duker, Sophie (22 April 2009). "Race is a laughing matter – so why are we still constrained by colour? - Cherwell".
    - University of Oxford (18 February 2014). "Sophie Duker" – via YouTube.
    - Hagen, Sofie (2 May 2018). "88. Sophie Duker – I was very into peeing on rich people's houses". madeofhumanpodcast.com. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  6. ^ "History & Line-Up". oxfordimps.com. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
    - "Wall of faces". ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  7. ^ "Backyard Comedy Club". www.BackyardComedyClub.co.uk. 13 April 2018.
  8. ^ "#EdFringe17: Sophie Duker is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl". broadwaybaby.com. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
    - "Manic Pixie Dream Girls". www.comedy.co.uk/. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  9. ^ "Sophie Duker". HuffPost UK.
  10. ^ "8 Out of 10 Cats: Series 21 Episode 4". Channel 4.
  11. ^ "Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions Apply". dave.uktv.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  12. ^ "Mock the Week, Mock the Week, Series 18, Episode 6". bbc.co.uk.
    - "Sophie Duker". comedy.co.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  13. ^ Dessau, Bruce (14 December 2017). "News: Winter Short Films Featuring James Acaster, Ed Gamble And More". Beyond the Joke. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  14. ^ "Riot Girls". Channel 4. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  15. ^ "What I Wish I'd Said". Comedy Central. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  16. ^ Cranshaw, Rachel (28 May 2018). "Sophie Duker – Diet Woke, Brighton Fringe, review: poignant and laugh-out-loud funny". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  17. ^ "Brighton Bites: Sophie Duker: Venus". The Reviews Hub. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  18. ^ "Sophie Duker: Venus". pleasance.co.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  19. ^ "Series 2 – Episode 2". Don't Hate the Playaz. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  20. ^ a b c d Duker, Sophie (19 October 2020). "In 2020, The Rules Are Still Different For Black Comedians". Bustle. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  21. ^ a b c d Williams, Martin (14 January 2021). "Police probe 'hate crime' after comedian Sophie Duker jokes about 'killing whitey' on Frankie Boyle BBC show". The Herald. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  22. ^ a b "Police to take no action over Sophie Duker's 'kill whitey' quip". Chortle. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  23. ^ "BBC gets 1,305 complaints for 'kill whitey' joke". Chortle. 2 October 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  24. ^ "BBC officially dismisses complaints over Sophie Duker's 'kill whitey' joke". Chortle. 24 December 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  25. ^ Williams, Martin (16 January 2021). "Police drop 'hate crime' probe after comedian Sophie Duker joked about 'killing whitey' on Frankie Boyle BBC show". The Herald. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  26. ^ Writtle, Mark (21 October 2020). "The Londoner: I'm not afraid of 'kill whitey' joke critics, says Sophie Duker". Evening Standard. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  27. ^ "Shows". Comedy Central UK.
  28. ^ "PREVIEW: Yesterday, Today And The Day Before, Comedy Central". TVZoneUK. 20 May 2021.
  29. ^ "Comedians Sophie Duker and Kemah Bob quit all-female panel show Yesterday, Today And The Day Before over 'unacceptable interference'". 27 May 2021.
  30. ^ "Comedians quit Yesterday, Today & The Day Before in Palestine protest". British Comedy Guide. 27 May 2021.
  31. ^ Farber, Alex. "Comedy Central hosts step down amid censorship row". Broadcast.
  32. ^ Embley, Jochan (5 May 2021). "'What if I've forgotten what words are?': Comics on stand-up's return". Evening Standard. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  33. ^ "Revealed: Which comedians are doing Celebrity Mastermind 2022". Chortle. 26 January 2022.
  34. ^ Celebrity Mastermind 2022: Episode 10. BBC. Event occurs at 27:38.
  35. ^ "Edinburgh festival 2022: 50 shows to see". the Guardian. 6 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  36. ^ Jenni Ajderian (August 2019). "Growing Pains". The Skinny. p. 19.

Further reading

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  • Quirk, Sophie (2022), "Comedy clubs that platform marginalised identities: Prefigurative politics in Sophie Duker's Wacky Racists", European Journal of Cultural Studies, 25 (2): 373–388, doi:10.1177/13675494211037024
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