Childhood & Early Life
Mel Giedroyc was born on 15 June 1958, to Michal Giedroyc and Rosemary, in Epsom, Surrey. Her father was a Polish aristocrat, aircraft designer, and historian who moved to Britain, in 1947. The family grew up in Leatherhead. She has three siblings, including Coky Giedroyc. the award-winning director.
She attended Oxford High School and later joined the Trinity College at Cambridge University where she studied Italian. She was an active theatre enthusiast and participated in many dramas across.
In 1988, she met her future collaborator, Sue Perkins, at a comedy gig in college and the duo eventually worked in the troupe ‘Footlights’. They started performing at various places and festivals while at college. After graduating, they embarked on a longstanding onscreen partnership.
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Career
Mel Giedroyc came to the conclusion that comedy was her calling and decided to work as a barmaid until she found a steady job along. Mel and Sue bagged the role for writing ‘Week Ending’, satirical radio sketch show on BBC Radio 4. This helped them enter the field of media and broadcasting.
They would routinely tour the country for stand-up gigs. They finally went on a UK National tour from 1995 to 1996.
In 1996, the duo was recruited to write for the popular sitcom ‘French & Saunders’. They also has brief appearances in the series.
Mel was next seen in ‘Light Lunch’, lunch-time comedy panel that she hosted alongside Sue. The show was successful and ran for four series from 1997 to 1998. A spin-off of this titled ‘Late Lunch’ was also hosted by Mel and Sue and ran for a season.
The famous duo toured again in April and May 1999 with their show ‘Mel & Sue: Back to Our Routes’.
In 2002, they worked on a six-part comedy series for BBC Radio 2 titled ‘Mel and Sue’s Comedy Breakdown’ and later for BBC Radio 4 as ‘The Mel and Sue Thing’.
In 2003, she was the co-presenter for ‘RI:SE’, a breakfast television show on Channel 4. The duo was roped in to present the show after declining ratings.
In 2004, she published her memoir ‘From Here to Maternity: One Mother of a Journey’. She described her journey to motherhood and how hard it was to juggle her career.
She was next seen in ‘Richard Hammond's 5 O' Clock Show’ as the co-presenter with Richard Hammond in 2006. She later appeared along with Sue in a ‘French & Saunders’ Mamma Mia comedy sketch for Comic Relief.
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Her biggest and most popular project was in 2010. She and Sue were asked to present BBC 2’s latest series ‘The Great British Bake Off, a baking competition. May Berry and Paul Hollywood were the judges and would overlook amateur bakers trying to outdo each other.
’The Great British Bake Off’ become an instant success and is often credit for instigating a revival of baking across the UK. Participants and winners have turned to more successful careers after appearing in the show.
The chemistry between Mel and Sue worked wonders as they duo was witty and indulged in engaging quips, making the show more interesting to watch. The show ran for four series before BBC One took it under them for the fifth and sixth series.
From 2011 to 2016, she solely worked as a presenter for many shows, including ‘Sadie J’, ‘Have I Got News for You’, ‘Draw It!’, ‘Now You See it’, ‘Horrible Histories’, and ‘Relatively Clever’.
Mel’s next project with Sue arrived in the form of a daytime chat show titled ‘Mel and Sue’ launched in 2015. They feature several celebrities like Jo Brand, Ben Miller, Liza Tarbuck, and Jason Manford. The show was later axed after one season.
The seventh season of ‘The Great British Bake Off’, scheduled in September 2016, was announced to move to Channel 4. Both Mel and Sue stated that they wouldn’t move to the new channel and stepped down as hosts.
In March 2017, she became the co-presenter of ‘Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief’; in the same year, it was announced that Mel and Sue would host the latest version of ‘The Generation Game’. She also presented the Saturday night show ‘Let It Shine’.
She was seen competing in the fourth series of Taskmaster; later in 2017, she presented the series ‘Pitch Battle’ for BBC One and the game show ‘Letterbox’. She also co-presented ‘Children in Need’ in November 2017.
In 2018, she was announced as the spokesperson for the United Kingdom as a part of the Eurovision Song Contest. She is currently working on her novel ‘The Best Thing’ which is scheduled to release in 2019.
She also made the headlines recently when it was announced that she was a part of the cast in Stephen Sondheim's ‘Company’ for the West End. She was previously seen on stage in the adaptation of ‘Much Ado about Nothing’.
She is currently active in the broadcasting circuit and continues to appear as a guest in many shows. She also hosts The Mel Giedroyc show at Magic Radio along with Andy Bush every Saturday.
