Catherine Tate - Biography

Rate: Catherine Ford (that's her proper name, before you think we've made a typo) is a British actress and comedian who you probably know from either her sketch show (the cleverly titled Catherine Tate Show) or more recently as the newest sidekick to Doctor Who.

Brought up by her florist mother, Josephine, Tate decided she wanted to become an actress in her teens. She went to the Sylvia Young school but, thankfully, decided she wasn't going to be Bonnie Langford any time soon so did the right thing and went it alone. Some of her first roles were pretty serious by the looks of it, from work with the Royal Shakespeare Company to a role in a production of A Servant with Two Masters at the National Theatre.

The Catherine Tate Show has been well recognised through various awards, from a handful of BAFTA nominations to being nominated three times for a British Comedy Award. Famously, Catherine's show lost out to Ant and Dec in a viewer vote when it was later revealed that she had in fact received the most votes... She probably was bothered that time.

Geeks take note - Catherine decided to take on the full-time role of Doctor Who's assistant, Donna, after an appearance in the 'runaway bride' Christmas special. Although she seemed like a bit of an odd choice to begin with, her performances have been well received by fans of the show.

Tate has one daughter, named Erin, with her partner Twig Clark.

It's reported that as a child, Tate suffered from an obsessive-compulsive disorder.