Dawn French was born in Holyhead.
She went to boarding school in Plymouth and studied in New York before enrolling in the Central London School of Speech and Drama where she met Jennifer Saunders in 1977, with whom she would have a long-standing comic partnership.
French and Saunders was first transmitted in 1987.
Dawn French's work without Jennifer Saunders includes the popular Richard Curtis sitcom, The Vicar of Dibley and Wild West.
Dawn French is married to Lenny Henry.
In 2008, Dawn French published her autobiography Dear Fatty.
In 2010 Dawn French and her husband Lenny Henry separated after 25 years of marriage.
