 Writer and performer Sally Phillips came to prominence as smirking
receptionist Sophie in I'm Alan Partridge (BBC, 1997-2002), a role that led GQ
magazine to name her the sexiest woman in hotel administration since Polly in
Fawlty Towers (BBC, 1975-79).
Born in Hong Kong, she gained a First in Italian at Oxford, spent a year out
living in a brothel in Rome, and considered a PhD on spaghetti westerns.
Instead, after a brief spell with the Oxford Revue and Theatre de Complicité,
she decided she had no desire to be "taken seriously".
The success of I'm Alan Partridge brought her to the attention of producer
Victoria Pile, who teamed her with Doon Mackichan and Fiona Allen for sketch
series Smack the Pony (Channel 4, 1999-2003). The series allowed Phillips to do
"what I do really well: wear wigs, drop things and walk into the wall."
Her performances have enlivened numerous series: as a proto-feminist in
Hippies (BBC, 1999), a features writer in Rescue Me (BBC, 2002) - a role she
prepared for by having a facial - and hippy Tash Vine in Jam and Jerusalem (BBC,
2006-09). Her forays into film include the role of Shazzer in Bridget Jones's
Diary (d. Sharon Maguire, 2001) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (d. Beeban
Kidron, 2004).
Since 2004, she has played the misanthropic social worker Clare in the
award-winning Radio 4 comedy Clare in the Community. As a writer, she won a 2009
UK Film Council screenwriting competition for Fag Mountain, and recently wrote
her first feature film, The Decoy Bride (d. Sheree Folkson, 2011).
Graham Rinaldi
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FILM & TV CREDITS
