Sally Phillips

She started her comedy career in the Oxford Revue and with comedians Simon Munnery, Stewart Lee and Arthur Smith over 9 Edinburgh Fringe runs in shows like Ra-Ra-Rasputin, a comedy biography of Rasputin the monk set to the words and lyrics of Boney M, Cluub Zarathustra and playing Ophelia in Arthur Smith’s Hamlet alongside writing and performing comedy for BBC Radio. Her first comedy drama ‘Protesting Too Much’ starred John Fortune and Eleanor Bron and aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1994.

Smack the Pony was a ground-breaking female-led sketch show that Sally developed and co-wrote with Doon Mackichan, Fiona Allen, Sarah Alexander and Darren Boyd, produced by Caroline Leddy and Victoria Pile. It aired between 1998 and 2002 and won many awards, among them two international Emmys. Sally television roles since then include Rescue Me, Tourist Trap and Parents, in which she played the leads; Green Wing, Galavant, Vanity Fair, Year of the Rabbit, Zapped, Henry IX (Golden Rose of Montreux); Friday Night Dinner, Breeders, Jerk and Pennyworth. Her most recent television credits include Channel 4’s Big Mood, Disney/Hulu’s Queenie and BBC’s We Might Regret This all of which drop this year.

Sally loves movies and has a long list of credits. Notable roles include Shazzer in the four Bridget Jones movies Gina in How to Please a Woman, Liz in Off The Rails, Mrs Bennett in Pride Prejudice and Zombies, Marie in The More You Ignore Me, Tessa Jones in Love At First Sight as well as parts in Blinded by the Light, The Fence, You, Me and Him, Burn, Burn, Burn, Off the Rails and Birthday Girl. She also provided voices for the animated film Ferdinand (1998). Sally enjoys her ongoing relationship with the QI family of programmes. She is a regular guest on QI on and its little sister podcast No Such Thing As a Fish and in 2017 she became one of BBC Radio 4's 'Museum of Curiosity's' curators. She is an occasional presenter, hosting The One Show from time to time, and My Life At Christmas for the BBC in 2023. During Lockdown she co-presented BBC One’s Sunday Morning Live with Sean Fletcher.

Writing credits include an award winning episode of the animation Bob and Margaret, The Decoy Bride, (with Neil Jarowski - film starring Kelly MacDonald and David Tennant), and The Wedding (with Nisti Sterk), a Captain Dolly movie in development with the BFI and BBC Films.

Sally and Ronni Ancona founded the production company Captain Dolly, a subsidiary of the Film Soho group of companies (Studio Soho, V-Studios, KrADR) with producer Nick Hamson in 2020 and now have a slate of films, tv comedies and podcasts in various stages of production.

Sally has three neurodivergent children. Two like their privacy, but Olly who has Down syndrome and Autism is becoming a self-advocate for people with Down syndrome. In 2016 Sally and Olly made a documentary A World Without Down's Syndrome? with director Clare Richards for (BBC2), exploring our national screening policy's ethical implications. It won the Radio Times Readers Award and Sanford St Martin award for the Best single documentary. The documentary has been shown worldwide and is still used to teach ethics at degree and A Level in the UK and abroad. Sally contributed to the Nuffield Council Report on the Down syndrome prenatal screening pathway and has spoken at universities and government offices as well as to midwives, gynaecologists and at a number of ‘philosopher’s dinners’. She is proud to be a joint patron of the Down syndrome Association with her son Olly as well as patron of The Brentford Penguins, Brentford FC’s Down syndrome Team and Josephine and Jack a charity that provides sex and relationship advice and education to adults with learning disabilities.