

Katherine Ryan tells of the sex pest in the green room
'Famous comic showed fellow acts videos of himself having sex'
Katherine Ryan has again called out sexual misconduct in the comedy industry – saying one ‘very famous’ comic showed videos of himself having sex to other stand-ups backstage.
She did not identify the comedian, other than to say he wasn’t British.
Ryan explained: 'He was very famous, very rich, very powerful, and he was in a room on a big show. I was one of a few women on that bill, maybe three women.
‘And there was a young female comedian who was starting out who was next to him, and he was with all the lads, showing pictures and videos on his phone that he had taken of himself having sex with women.
'So, like, really intimate photos, intimate videos and he was showing them. His penis was in a lot of these videos.'
Speaking on the latest episode of the Nip Tuck podcast, Ryan explained how the up-and-coming comic came to her for support.
’She felt very uncomfortable about that and then she came into my dressing room to be like, "Oh, I didn't like him showing me that" and she's about to go on stage.
'She's very new. I was even quite new at that time, but yeah, stuff like that and being a minority in that situation, which female comedians, especially when I was starting out, were always minorities.'
'In every green room, every dressing room, there are things we can't do that the boys can do. We can't take a night bus. We can't sleep on the floor with like, four other comedians starting out a lot of times. We have children that we have to look after, and then we get fans who, like, could kill us.'
Ryan has previously spoken about her 'scary' experiences with male fans in the early days of her television career.
And she spoke of her dilemma of taking a job with someone she thought was sexual predator – widely assumed to be her Roast Battle co-star Russell Brand, although she has never named him.
Speaking on Desert Island Discs she said: ‘ I could go to work with someone whom I believe to be a perpetrator of sexual assault, or I could turn down the job. Those were my options. And so I wrestled with that.
‘The choice is, do I go to work with someone who I think is very problematic and do I stand near them and laugh and smile and look like I am allowing this kind of person to still be on television, or do I stay home?
‘My compromise was, alright, I’m gonna go, but I’m going to let him know under no uncertain terms what I think of him. I’m not gonna just smile and look like I’m allowing this behaviour.’
Brand has always aways said his sexual encounters were all consensual. He has been charged with rape, indecent assault and sexual assault between 1999 and 2005 and ordered to appear in front of magistrates on May 2.
Published: 24 Apr 2025

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