Biography
Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.
She first came into widespread attention in the 1980s and early 1990s when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Along with her comedy partner Dawn French, she writes and stars in their eponymous sketch show, French & Saunders, and has received international acclaim for writing and playing the lead role of Edina Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
In her other work, she has guest starred in the American sitcoms Roseanne and Friends, and won the American People's Choice Award for voicing the wicked Fairy Godmother in DreamWorks' animated Shrek 2. More recently, she wrote and starred in Jam & Jerusalem and The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle.
Filmography
Cast Credits
Virginia Woolf's Night & Day
Character: Mrs Hilbery
MOVIE • 2026
Too Much
Character: Fiona
TV • 2025
Only Child
Character: Sally
TV • 2024
Absolutely Fabulous: Inside Out
Character: Self
MOVIE • 2024
Kirsty MacColl at the BBC
Character: Self (archive footage)
MOVIE • 2024
Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps
Character: The Goose (voice)
MOVIE • 2024
200% Wolf
Character: Max (voice)
MOVIE • 2024
We Work for the Dead
Character: The Mother (voice)
MOVIE • 2024
Dawn French Is a Huge Twat
Character: Self (uncredited)
MOVIE • 2023
imagine... French & Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter
Character: Self - featured artist
MOVIE • 2023
Sumotherhood
Character: DI Brookes
MOVIE • 2023
Allelujah
Character: Sister Gilpin
MOVIE • 2023
Fantasy Football League
Character: Themselves
TV • 2022
The Pentaverate
Character: Maester of Dubrovnik / Saester of Dubrovnik
TV • 2022
Death on the Nile
Character: Marie Van Schuyler
MOVIE • 2022
Sing 2
Character: Nana (voice)
MOVIE • 2021
French & Saunders: Funny Women
Character: Self
MOVIE • 2021
Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable
Character: Self
TV • 2021
Richard Osman's House of Games Night
Character: Self
TV • 2020
The Stranger
Character: Heidi Doyle
TV • 2020
Crew
Crew Credits
Absolutely Fabulous: Inside Out
Role: Executive Producer
MOVIE • 2024
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 2019
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
Role: Screenplay
MOVIE • 2016
French and Saunders: Still Alive
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 2008
The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle
Role: Creator
TV • 2007
A Bucket O' French and Saunders
Role: Creator
TV • 2007
Jam and Jerusalem
Role: Writer
TV • 2006
Jam and Jerusalem
Role: Creator
TV • 2006
The Best of French & Saunders
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 2002
Absolutely Fabulous
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 2001
Mirrorball
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 2000
Mirrorball
Role: Creator
MOVIE • 2000
French & Saunders - Live
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 2000
Absolutely Fabulous: A Life
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 1998
Absolutely Fabulous: The Last Shout
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 1996
How to Be Absolutely Fabulous
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 1995
Absolutely Fabulous
Role: Writer
TV • 1992
Absolutely Fabulous
Role: Creator
TV • 1992
French & Saunders
Role: Creator
TV • 1987
The Silurian Disruption
Role: Writer
MOVIE • 1987