Jennifer "Jen" Brister is a British stand-up comedian, writer and actor from South London.
Life and career
Early life
Brister was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, in 1975 to an English father and a Spanish mother. She has three brothers. Brister was raised as a Catholic and went to all girls' Ursuline High School, Wimbledon. She then went on to Richmond College. Her overbearing Spanish mother is a frequent topic in her comedy shows.
Stand-up career
Brister studied drama at Middlesex University, London, where she took a course in stand-up comedy in the mid-1990s, the only course of its kind at the time in the UK. Other famous graduates include Alan Carr, Renton Skinner of the Dutch Elm Conservatoire and Shooting Stars and Clare Warde of the Runaway Lovers. Brister's first gig was at the end of her third year at university in 1996, at the King's Head in Crouch End, London. Since then, she has performed internationally including at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2011 and 2014, at the Adelaide Festival in 2011 and 2012, as well as numerous times at the Edinburgh Festival. She regularly performs at clubs around the UK including Banana Cabaret, The Comedy Store, The Glee Clubs, Frog & Bucket, and Up the Creek. She toured the UK for the first time in 2018 with her show Meaningless. Her comedy hero is Victoria Wood. In 2006, Brister appeared at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with her first show Me, My Mum and I. In Time Out, March 2006, Jen stated "It's really an exploration of my relationship with my mum. It's an analysis, as well, of where I am at this point in my life. I'm 31. I'm single. I don't own a house. Or a car. I don't have kids. Or any solid financial security. At 31, my mother had three children and a fourth on the way. She was married and she had a mortgage." In 2007–2008, Brister worked for BBC 6 Music as a stand-in presenter and in 2008 took a show to Edinburgh called Reception with her comedy partner at the time Clare Warde. In 2009, Brister appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe again doing a stand-up show as well as appearing in a play called The One and The Many by Trevor Lock. In 2011, Brister took her second solo showBritish to Melbourne, Adelaide and Edinburgh Festivals. In 2012 Brister performed her third solo show Now and Then at the Adelaide and Edinburgh Festivals as well as performing a sell-out run at the Soho Theatre in London in 2013. In 2014, Brister took her fourth show, Wishful Thinking to the Free Fringe at Edinburgh which she also performed at the Soho Theatre. In 2016, Brister performed her fifth show, The Other One at the Camden Fringe comedy festival and in 2017 performed it once again at the Soho Theatre. In 2017, Brister performed at BBC Two'sLive at The Apollo, which was aired in December 2017. In 2018, Brister took her sixth show, Meaningless, to the Edinburgh festival where she had a sell-out run. This is the first show that she has toured around the UK. She gave a TED talk at Brighton TEDx in 2018 titled "Changing the way we bring up our boys", addressing the cultural and gender norms taught to children. Brister supported Frankie Boyle on his 2018 tour and was a panellist on Frankie Boyle's New World Order on BBC Two in 2019. She was a panellist on BBC Radio 4'sThe News Quizin September 2018 and May 2019. She is a regular guest on podcasts like The Guilty Feminist, Global Pillage and Drunk Women Solving Crime. She also does her own podcast together with comedian Maureen Younger. Her 2019 Edinburgh show was called Under Privilege. 2020 brings a UK tour 'Under Privilege' including Machynlleth Comedy Festival at The Tabernacle, Machynlleth. In May 2020 Brister appeared on the panel show Who Said That?. ''
Writing
Brister is also a writer and has contributed to Diva, g3, Standard Issue magazine and The Huffington Post. She has also written for BBC Scotland. Her first book, The Other Mother - A wickedly honest parenting tale for every kind of family, was published by Penguin in 2019.
Acting
Brister's first role in a feature film is in the upcoming horror filmLair, directed by Adam Ethan Crow.
Personal life
Brister and her partner Chloe Martin are mothers of twin boys, born in September 2014. They live in Brighton.
