After Dinner SpeakersSandi Toksvig OBE is an award-winning Comedian, Broadcaster and Author.
Sandi is the host of BBC2’s hugely popular quiz show QI.
In 2017 she and Noel Fielding became the new co-hosts of The Great British Bake Off.
As the daughter of a foreign correspondent for Danish television, Sandi travelled extensively and was brought up in Europe, Africa, and the United States.
Sandi spent six years at Mamaroneck High School in New York State. She also went to a boarding school in Guildford, Britain.
Sandi Toksvig studied Law, Archaeology and Anthropology at Girton College Cambridge University, she also studied Muslim law as part of her extra studies. Sandi had hoped to become a human rights lawyer.
She won The Theresa Montefiore Memorial Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement and The Raemakers Prize for Archaeology.
Sandi took a year off her studies to work as a lighting technician on Jesus Christ Superstar at the Palace Theatre, London. While at Cambridge she wrote and starred in the first all-woman show for the Footlights Review. She graduated from the university with a first-class degree in law.
Sandi then went to work on various productions for the Nottingham Playhouse, including A Little Night Music and then went on to work with the New Shakespeare Company in Regents Park, London.
Sandi Toksvig made a break into children’s television in the 80’s, appearing in the popular Saturday morning show No. 73 for which she was also a writer.
A former member of The Comedy Store Players, Sandi moved into the comedy circuit, radio, and mainstream television. Sandi first performed on Channel 4’s improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. She became a panellist on the BBC Radio 4 spoof game show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, and the BBC 2 Television word game Call My Bluff. She co-presented Island Race with John McCarthy.
For a decade Sandi was a familiar voice to BBC Radio 4 listeners as the chair of The News Quiz which led to her induction into the Radio Hall of Fame.
Away from presenting and performing, much of Sandi’s time is devoted to writing. In 2019 she became president of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.
Sandi has written more than twenty fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults.
For the theatre Sandi co-authored the musical Big Night Out at the Little Sands Picture Palace Theatre (with Dillie Keane), the Shakespeare deconstruction, The Pocket Dream (with Elly Brewer) Charity Begins for Playhouse Live, Bully Boy and Silver Linings. Her adaptation of Treasure Island reopened the Leicester Haymarket Theatre in December 2018.
Sandi’s new shows include her adaptation of Mamma Mia the Party at London’s 02 and her new family show Christmas at the (Snow) Globe co-written with Jenifer Toksvig at the Globe Theatre.
Sandi is an activist for gender equality. In 2014 she co-founded the Women’s Equality Party.
