Helen Lederer

Helen Lederer

Date of birth: 24-09-1954
Helen Lederer is best known for playing dippy magazine editor Catriona in all five series of Absolutely Fabulous between 1992 and 2012, and in the 2016 movie, one of several collaborations with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Born in Carmarthen to an English mother and Czech father, she started her career in the Comedy Store in the 1980s and in 1986 got her break after the cast of predominantly Scottish BBC Two sketch show Naked Video. She had a memorable guest turn alongside Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson in Bottom as a fallen millionairess. In January 2013 she was a contestant on ITV celebrity diving show Splash!, but was eliminated in the first round and she's appeared on several other reality shows, including Celebrity Big Brother in 2018. In 2015 her comedy novel Losing It was published, which inspired her to set up the Comedy Women In Print award in 2018. In 2024, Lederer released her memoir, Not That I'm Bitter.
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© Matt Crockett

New podcast for Helen Lederer

With guests recalling the moment they said, 'Eff it'

Helen Lederer is launching a new podcast.

Recorded live on stage at the Phoenix Arts Club in London, each episode of Eff It, focuses on the point at which her guest realised something was wrong and decided to act on it. 

Lederer, best known for playing Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous, says the idea grew out of her experience of years of people-pleasing and doing what she was told, before she decided to stop.

Her guests for the first recording on Monday are comic Stephen Bailey and The Wanted singer- songwriter Jay McGuiness. 

Lederer says: ‘We can’t wait for you to hear the stories of Jay and Stephen, who are both fabulously successful in their own right. There’s no place to hide on stage and we can’t wait for you to listen in and have a laugh. PS - there’ll be wine.’

Lederer has recently published her memoir, Not That I’m Bitter, and says that writing it made her stop worrying about what other people think of her. 

She has also just released the last of her seven-episode podcast Writing Funny – aimed at aspiring comedy writers and spawned from her work running the Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) Prize,  which she founded in 2018. 

Each live recording of Eff It at the Phoenix Arts Club is a double bill, which will be released as a podcast with one guest per episode from October. Further recordings take place on October 12 and November 2. 

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Published: 22 Sep 2026

Past Shows

Edinburgh Fringe 2001

Helen Lederer


Edinburgh Fringe 2004

Helen Lederer: Finger Food


Agent

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