1988–2003: Early acting and stand-up career From 1988 to 1990 Tate toured with the National Youth Theatre production of
Blood Wedding, which also starred
Daniel Craig and
Jessica Hynes. Soon after, she co-wrote and starred in
Barking (1998), a late-night sketch show broadcast on
Channel 4 featuring a host of performers who included
David Walliams,
Peter Kay and
Mackenzie Crook. The show also starred
Dawn French as her lesbian partner and local shop and
post office co-owner Mary, who commented, "Catherine Tate is far too talented and she must be destroyed." Produced by Perkins at
Tiger Aspect, Tate was given her own programme on
BBC Two in 2004, which she co-wrote and starred in with
Derren Litten, entitled
The Catherine Tate Show, which ran for three series. and with the first series becoming a success, in March 2005, Tate made a guest appearance during the
BBC's
Red Nose Day as the character of Lauren, alongside boy band
McFly, which gained her further exposure. Also at that time, she was a guest star at the 77th
Royal Variety Performance, appearing again in the guise of Lauren Cooper. During the sketch, Tate looked up at the
Royal Box and asked
the Queen, "Is one bovvered? Is one's face bovvered?", while her co-star
Niky Wardley (in character as Liese) remarked: "That
old man sitting next to her has fallen asleep." Prince Philip then reportedly complained to the show's executive producer, saying he had been insulted. In January 2005, Tate appeared as Mitzi Kosinki in the
ITV adaptation of
Agatha Christie's novel
A Murder Is Announced, starring
Geraldine McEwan as
Miss Marple. Towards the end of the year, Tate played the part of Kate in the unaired pilot episode of
Lee Mack's sitcom
Not Going Out and Mrs Chadband in an episode of the BBC
television adaptation of
Bleak House. Tate returned to the stage for the first time since working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, to play a role in the original
West End production of
Some Girl(s) (2005), alongside
Sara Powell,
Lesley Manville,
Saffron Burrows and
Friends star
David Schwimmer. In an interview, Tate commented that she could not look Schwimmer in the eye during her time with him, leading to speculation that the pair did not get on.
2006–2010: Doctor Who and films The
third series of
The Catherine Tate Show aired in 2006, going on to win the
National Television Award for most popular comedy as voted for by the public, and Tate's catchphrase "bovvered", used by her character Lauren Cooper, became so influential in popular culture that it was named
Word of the Year and was even poised to enter the
Oxford English Dictionary. Tate also played the role of
Donna Noble in
Doctor Who, a
temp worker from
Chiswick who suddenly appears in the
TARDIS at the end of the episode "
Doomsday". The following episode, the Christmas special entitled "
The Runaway Bride", saw Tate's character in a major role, where she was temporarily the Doctor's companion. , behind her, in 2011Tate had roles in three films in 2006, these included
Starter for 10 starring
James McAvoy,
Sixty Six starring
Helena Bonham Carter and
Eddie Marsan, and
Scenes of a Sexual Nature, a debut feature screenplay from
The Catherine Tate Show co-writer
Aschlin Ditta. She later appeared in the films ''
Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution, in which she played the title character opposite Iain Glen, In the television adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name, The Bad Mother's Handbook'', she played the dramatic lead role and co-starred with
Anne Reid,
Holliday Grainger and
Robert Pattinson. On 16 March 2007 Tate appeared for a second time on the
Red Nose Day telethon as some of her well-known characters from
The Catherine Tate Show. She acted in sketches with David Tennant, her fellow National Youth Theatre alumni
Daniel Craig,
Lenny Henry and the then
Prime Minister Tony Blair, who used the show's famous catchphrase, "Am I bovvered?". Tate also appeared as Nan in an episode of
Deal or No Deal, hosted by
Noel Edmonds. She has been nominated for four
BAFTA Awards for her work on
The Catherine Tate Show, including
Best Comedy Performance. Despite speculation that the third series of the show would be the last, Tate and the BBC have not ruled out further episodes. After the complaints were made, an
Ofcom report later concluded that the show was not offensive and did not violate broadcasting regulations. An extract from the Ofcom report read: "Overall this episode was typical of
The Catherine Tate Show and would not have gone beyond the expectations of its usual audience. For those not familiar with the show, the information given at the start was adequate." In summer 2008, Tate starred as Michelle, a promiscuous mathematics teacher, in
David Eldridge's
Under the Blue Sky at the
Duke of York's Theatre, alongside
Francesca Annis and
Nigel Lindsay. The first preview performance was canceled after she injured her ankle during the final dress rehearsal. Tate, however, returned to the stage the next day and performed preview shows with the aid of a crutch. Earlier that year, she returned to
Doctor Who to reprise the role of the Doctor's companion throughout the
fourth series, which was shown on
BBC One starting on 5 April for a 13-week run. Producer
Russell T Davies said, "We are delighted that one of Britain's greatest talents has agreed to join us for the fourth series." Tate added, "I am delighted to be returning to
Doctor Who. I had a blast last Christmas and look forward to travelling again through time and space with that nice man from
Gallifrey." She also earned a nomination at the
14th National Television Awards. A year and a half after the heartbreaking
finale of the fourth series, she returned as Donna in the first part of the show's festive special "
The End of Time", which was broadcast on Christmas Day 2009 and became the final story for both David Tennant as the
Tenth Doctor and Russell T Davies as
showrunner. Later that day, ''
Nan's Christmas Carol premiered, a one-off special spin-off to The Catherine Tate Show'' focused on Nan, who gets visited by three ghosts (played by David Tennant,
Ben Miller and
Roger Lloyd-Pack) in her council flat. The next day, Tate and Tennant guest hosted
Jonathan Ross's
BBC Radio 2 show, having already done so on 11 April and later appearing on the show once again on 30 January 2010. In March 2010, Tate took part in ''
Channel 4's Comedy Gala'', a
benefit show held in aid of
Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the
O2 Arena in London. She went on to make her directorial debut in
Sky One's series of short comedy films called
Little Crackers. The autobiographical short film
My First Nativity (2010), also written by and starring Tate as her mother Josephine, showed the young Catherine performing an impression of
Gary Glitter in her school
nativity play. It received a nomination for the
Best Comedy Programme at the
2011 British Academy Television Awards. On Christmas Day 2010 Tate appeared as Queen Isabelle of
Lilliput in the
film adaptation of ''
Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black in the title role. She then starred opposite Selena Gomez in another American comedy film, Monte Carlo'' (2011).
2011–present: Further television and stage work '' In March 2011, the video for
Take That's new single "
Happy Now" was debuted on
Comic Relief. The video showed Tate alongside comedians
Alan Carr,
James Corden,
John Bishop and
David Walliams, all auditioning to become Take That's ultimate
tribute band, Fake That. In December, she presented
Channel 4's two-hour documentary
Catherine Tate: Laughing at the Noughties, in which she met Carr, Walliams,
Noel Fielding,
Rob Brydon and her
Doctor Who co-star David Tennant to discuss the comedy highlights of the 2000s. It was soon after she served as a guest host on the comedy shows
The Sunday Night Project (2009) and
Never Mind the Buzzcocks (2010). The production was recorded by
Digital Theatre and is available to watch on their website. For her performance as
Beatrice, Tate won the
BroadwayWorld UK Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play, while her reunion with Tennant won the
WhatsOnStage Award for the Theatre Event of the Year. At the same ceremony, she received an award in the Best Supporting Actress category for the
Royal National Theatre production of
Alan Ayckbourn's ''
Season's Greetings (2010–2011), in which she played Belinda. She was reportedly the top choice to replace Carell, but was unable to join the filming, due to her commitment to Much Ado About Nothing
. However, in January 2012 Tate returned to The Office'' as a series regular for the second half of
season eight, reprising her role as Nellie, who was hired as a "misguided special projects manager". She continued in the role for the
ninth and final season. In May 2013, she starred alongside Lee Mack in the unaired BBC One pilot for
Everybody Loves Raymond remake, titled
The Smiths. Coincidentally, Tate played Kate in the original 2005 pilot of the show, which was also never broadcast. Around the same time in 2013, she joined David Walliams and
Philip Glenister in the BBC One sitcom
Big School (2013–2014), playing the main role of French teacher Sarah Postern in both series of the show. Tate later appeared as a
nun alongside Walliams as
Lou Todd in a
Red Nose Day 2015 sketch, featuring
Stephen Hawking in the
Andy Pipkin role. in 2018|left In 2013, she accepted the role in the
low-budget superhero comedy film
SuperBob (2015) written by and starring
Brett Goldstein as the title character, which led to a number of collaborations with Goldstein. Three episodes of her sitcom ''
Catherine Tate's Nan, co-written with Goldstein, aired in January 2014 and December 2015 on BBC One. Benjamin McDonald, writing in Gay Times'', praised Tate's performance, saying she "proves she has the strong vocal ability to match her impeccable
comic timing". The show itself received much poorer reviews, including a one-star review from
The Stage. in 2019 On New Year's Day 2016, Tate played the role of
hand model Sapphire Diamond in the television adaptation of David Walliams's children's book
Billionaire Boy. She appeared in ''Bruce's Hall of Fame with Alexander Armstrong
the following day with a musical tribute to her childhood hero Victoria Wood, calling her the first woman she had seen being funny on television. She then chose Wood as her inspirational female figure when promoting Leading Lady Parts'' (2018), a short film inspired by the
Time's Up movement and starring Tate as a
casting director auditioning several
A-list actresses for a
leading lady role. Some pre-recorded sketches, including cameos by
Nick Grimshaw and
Billy Connolly, were shown during each of the many changes of Tate's costumes and wigs. In late 2018, she brought the show to
Australia and
New Zealand with the help of two new cast members, David O'Reilly and
Alex Carter, before finishing her tour at London's
Wyndham's Theatre in January 2019. Around the same time, she hosted the
2018 Laurence Olivier Awards. in 2019|left In 2016 and 2019, Tate and David Tennant reprised their
Doctor Who roles in two volumes of the full-cast audio series
The Tenth Doctor Adventures from
Big Finish Productions. Talking about his frequent colleague during the recording session, Tennant said: "I love working with Catherine because of the life that she brings to something and the way that she can turn the most mundane line into something glorious and sparkling. I love Catherine for what she is most famous for, and that's being funny and brilliant and witty and quick, but I love the fact that she's a great and proper actress." In October 2017, Tate was revealed to be part of the cast of
Disney XD's
DuckTales reboot, providing the voice of the villainous sorceress
Magica De Spell following the death of the character's long-time
voice actor,
June Foray, in July of the same year. Tennant provided the voice of the show's protagonist,
Scrooge McDuck. In April 2020, Tate revived her popular character Lauren Cooper for
The Big Night In, a telethon held during the
COVID-19 pandemic, in a skit that had her being
schooled remotely by a teacher played again by Tennant. Another popular character from
The Catherine Tate Show, Nan, made a return the next year in a Comic Relief sketch starring Daniel Craig as
James Bond, followed by the feature film
The Nan Movie (2022). In April 2022, she starred as six different characters in
Hard Cell, a
Netflix original mockumentary sitcom set in a women's prison. She co-wrote the series with
Niky Wardley and
Alex Carter and co-directed all six episodes with James Kayler. In May, it was announced Tate would reprise her role as Donna Noble, alongside David Tennant as the
Fourteenth Doctor, for the
60th anniversary specials of
Doctor Who. In August, the BBC commissioned
Queen of Oz, a sitcom written by and starring Tate as a disgraced member of a fictional
British royal family sent to rule Australia, which aired in June 2023. In May 2023, Tate was the UK's jury spokesperson in the final of the
Eurovision Song Contest 2023, in which she announced the UK's jury points directly from the
Liverpool Arena, where the event was held. In December 2025 Tate appeared in pantomime in the London Palladium. In February 2026, Tate was announced to be joining the
West End production of the play
Oh, Mary!, written by
Cole Escola, in the lead role of
Mary Todd Lincoln for a limited run from April to July. ==Personal life==