Jennifer Jane Saunders was born in the shire county of Sleaford, Lincolnshire in England into a Royal Air Force (RAF) family. Jennifer’s roots are in comedy, specifically a UK-originated genre known worldwide as “alternative comedy”. Her and her comedy troupe friends Adrian Edmondson (husband), Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, and Alexei Sayle, are the benchmark comedians for the alternative comedy style that Patton Oswalt described as: “comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa.” For the group, AKA the Comic Strip, this meant taking 1980’s mainstream channels and portraying crudely humorous commentary and gags centered on non-mainstream topics such as racism, sexism, alcoholism, and drug abuse. Dawn and Jennifer were the first and only women to join the group in 1980.

Television comedy and writing were Jennifer’s bread and butter from the 1980’s and onward. She wrote and starred in practically all of her work, including the BBC cornerstones “French & Saunders”, “Absolutely Fabulous”, and “Jam and Jerusalem” (or “Clatterford” in America). She’s earned three BAFTA awards and an International Emmy among other credits. Jennifer’s crossover success to music came after three decades of successful small screenwriting. In 2004, she voiced the favorite movie villain , Fairy Godmother, in the Dreamworks sequel, Shrek 2. Her voice is recorded twice on the official motion picture soundtrack: “The Fairy Godmother Song” and “Holding Out For a Hero”. Enjoying the luxury of sitting in the animation studio on a microphone for only four days total to complete her part, Jennifer also revealed to Guardian magazine, “This job really has been one of my favourite jobs in the world.”

Adrian “Ade” Edmondson, whom Jennifer’s classic Ab Fab character (Edina Monsoon) is named for, has been married to Jennifer since 1985. They have three children and two grandchildren. She is currently in remission from breast cancer, which first became symptomatic in 2009. Today she is cancer-free and has been voted as the fourth funniest woman in Britain.