Jessica Martin

Jessica Martin graduated with a degree in English and Drama from Westfield College, London University and also studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama.[3] Her first job, in 1983 when she was 21, was as a resident singer at St James's Hotel and Club, where her father, Placido Martin, was the cocktail pianist.[3][1] She became an impressionist on the fringe circuit, performing alongside Harry Enfield and Rory Bremner. She was given a regular slot on Spitting Image and became the only female member of London Weekend's Copy Cats. Fellow team members included Bobby Davro with whom she partnered for three series of his weekly show Bobby Davro's TV Weekly. Martin and Gary Wilmot went on to star in the West End hit show Me and My Girl. They performed for two years at the Adelphi Theatre and then went on a national tour.[4]

Martin went on to play leading musical roles including Mabel in the 1996 production of Mack and Mabel at the Piccadilly Theatre, Nellie Forbush in South Pacific, Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd and Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.[5] She also guest-starred in the 1988 Doctor Who serial The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, starring Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, in which she played a punk werewolf. Many years later, she provided the voice of the Queen in Voyage of the Damned, the 2007 Christmas special, which starred David Tennant as the Doctor.[6]

She played the Lady of the Lake in the national tour of Spamalot in 2011,[7] Lottie Ames in the award-winning production of Mack and Mabel and Lottie Lacey in the revival of William Inge's Dark at the Top of the Stairs.[8]

In October 2015, she joined the cast of Elf: The Musical, playing the role of Emily Hobbs at the Dominion Theatre.[9] In September 2016, she was featured in Robert J. Sherman's Bumblescratch playing the dual roles of Bethesda Bumblescratch and the Widow MacGregor at the Adelphi Theatre. She was named a Variety Club Celebrity Ambassador for her work in Bumblescratch and her other works.[10][11][12]

Martin played role of Dame Shirley Porter in Shirleymander by Greg Evans at the Playground Theatre, London in 2018,[13] for which she was nominated for the Best Female Performance in the Off West End Awards 2018.[14]

Jessica Martin is a patron of the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America, and performed at the 50th anniversary Memorial Service for Lupino Lane at St Paul's, Covent Garden in 2009.[15]

Martin has made numerous radio appearances including a specially written one off special for BBC Radio 2, The Gossip Column Murders, written by Mark Brisenden featuring a 1940s female radio detective Cybil Liberty, including Judy Garland and Carmen Miranda all played by Jessica.[16][17]

Martin was a voice actor for the English-language version of the PlayStation 2 game Dragon Quest VIII, and has also performed as a voice over artist for a range of animations and commercials. She has also recorded audio books including Vindication of the Rights of Men written by Mary Wollstonecraft.[18]

In 2004, Martin recorded a song for the CD Weird & Wonderful - A Collection of Songs by Alexander S. Bermange celebrating weirdos and weirdness, featuring sixteen West End stars (released on Dress Circle Records). In 2008, she joined author and columnist Mark Steyn to release a cover of "It's a Marshmallow World", a holiday song first popularised by Bing Crosby.[19]

In 2010, Martin took up sketching, for the first time since studying A-level art. The following year, whilst touring in the musical Spamalot with Phill Jupitus she showed him one of her sketches. Jupitus praised the sketch and suggested that Martin should do a graphic novel. Martin has referred to this as a "lightbulb moment."[20]

Her first published work was a story illustrated by her 'mentor' Mark Buckingham which was included in the Thought Bubble Anthology 2013. Her first comic written and drawn by herself was It Girl about silent film actress Clara Bow. It was self-published in November 2013 and was selected in the "Ten Must Own Small-Press Comics 2013" by Broken Frontier.[21]

Her first full-length graphic novel Elsie Harris Picture Palace, which is set in the 1930s British film industry, was shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Prize 2014.[22]

Her graphic novel 'Life Drawing: A Life Under Lights' is a memoir about her life as an actress, singer and artist was published by Unbound in Spring 2019.[23]