There has been an age long stereotype in the humor business, especially in stand-up comedy. It has always tilted in favor of the male gender. Yet in recent times, there has emerged a new breed of female comics that have matched and even exceeded the male-dominated stage. One of the prominent figures among them is the Irish Canadian born, UK-based stand-up comedienne, actress, writer and show presenter, Katherine Ryan.
She was the perfect replacement for Steve Jones as a presenter on British reality show Hair on BBC2 in 2015 and she has equally appeared on the sitcom Campus and Don’t Sit in the Front Row alongside English stand-up comedian, Jack Dee.
Her act as a stand-up comedian on BBC’s Live at Apollo earned her the Nivea Funny Women Award in 2013. In this post, you will get to know more about her bio, boyfriend and family life.
Katherine Ryan Bio
Katharine Ryan was born on June 30th, 1983 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada to Irish immigrant, Finbar Ryan, who was an architect and engineer. She worked partly as a trainer of the waitresses at the Hooters, while schooling and after graduating from the University of Toronto, she continued with the job on a full-time basis. The job gave her the much-needed opportunity to travel to various branches of the firm all over Canada and she even helped to start up a branch in Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
She finally moved to London in January 2008, a move she relishes on very much. She joked in an interview that she would only return to Canada if she was terminally ill.
As a comedian, the Canadian stand-up comic made her first TV appearance in BBC Channel 4’s 8 Out of 10 Cats TV comedy panel game in 2012. The following year (2013) she featured in Lets Dance for Comic Relief contest mimicking Nicki Minaj . She made it to the finals in the competition and finished in the fourth position. In the same year, Katharine featured on the Whitney Cummings Just for Laughs .
When Steve Jones (of X-factor) left BBC Two’s Hair reality show in 2015, Katharine stepped in as his replacement and also became a panelist on Sky One’s music/comedy contest bring the Noise . The same year she also featured on yet another show, ITV’s Safeword. Katherine Ryan won the entry series on the second series of Taskmasters in 2016 and went on a comedy tour tagged Kathbum the same year.
Katharine Ryan provided the voice over for the television series of cat Ranceford in the Disney animated film Counterfeit Cat in 2016.
In February 2017, Netflix released her comedy special Katharine Ryan: In Trouble which featured some of one of the live performances in the previous year’s tour. She has hosted two series of Your Face or Mine? a longside Jimmy Carr.
Katherine’s winsome humor got misunderstood in 2013 after she jokingly jibed that cosmetics were not tested on animals but on Filipino kids. This gag was met with distaste from the Filipino audience who labeled it a racist remark and demanded that the show be stopped. Vile death threats poured in through the internet thereafter but somehow she peddled the waters to her safety.
Family Life of the Comedian
The multi-talented television personality was born to Irish immigrant father, Finbar Ryan who was an architect and engineer while her mother was a Canadian who owned an ICT consulting firm. Katharine has two younger sisters; Kerrie Ryan and Joanne Ryan and they all spent some of their growing up days in Cork, Ireland with their paternal grandparents.
Her parent’s marriage ended when she was just 15 years old and immediately she turned 18, the young Katherine left home in pursuit of a career in the city. She enrolled in the University of Toronto while working on a part-time basis at the Hooters where she trained waitresses. As a hobby, Katherine attended open mic nights in a clubhouse, a habit that gradually developed her flair for comedy.
Her mother’s name is not known but one other fact that is known about her is that she was a breast cancer survivor. Coincidentally, Katherine Ryan equally had her own bout of the disease (skin cancer) twice and thankfully, she overcame it.
Daughter, Boyfriend
Katherine Ryan is a single mother of one daughter, named Violet born in 2010. Violet is an offspring from her relationship with an ex-boyfriend, whose identity she did not reveal though she broke up with him for cheating and even made a joke out of it.
She is single and not in any known relationship and she currently resides in London with her only child. The actress told The Guardian in an interview that she would like to get pregnant again.
Ryan’s passion for her career and love for her baby saw her strap in the baby barely 21 days after her delivery in order to meet up with her earlier booked comedy show. The single mom looks forward to having more kids but added that a man may not be in her family picture.
Ryan revealed at one time that she was dating the American stand-up comedian Alex Edelman, who is based in New York. He won the Edinburgh Comedy Award as Best Newcomer in the year 2014.
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The Canadian born actress later told a UK based tabloid The Sun that she doesn’t see much of Edelman. According to her, they have been off and on for over three years. However, she added that the American comedian was the best one she has ever dated.
The blonde 5 feet 6 inches tall comedienne earns most of her income from stand-up tours and acting. Her current net worth is estimated to be about $1 million and if she continues her impressive performances in the years to come she might earn much more than that.