St Hugh’s Governing Body recently voted to elect Rebecca Front to an Honorary Fellowship. This was in recognition of her contribution to the British entertainment industry and her charity work to raise awareness about mental health.
English actress, writer and comedian Rebecca Front read English Language & Literature at St Hugh’s in 1982 and became involved in comedy while studying at the College. Indeed her first comedy performances were at St Hugh’s itself, in a sketch show co-written with her brother Jeremy. She toured with the Oxford Theatre Group in 1984, becoming the first female President of the Oxford Revue and taking part in their ‘Stop the Weak’ tour. The tour played in Oxford itself; the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, Edinburgh, Salisbury and Romsey.
She is known for her work in numerous British comedies, including The Thick of It (2009-2012), The Day Today (1994), Knowing Me, Knowing You… with Alan Partridge (1994), Big Train (2002), Psychobitches (2012-2014) and Nighty Night (2004–2005).
Rebecca is equally known for dramatic roles, including Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent in Lewis (2006–2014), Anna Mikhailovna in War & Peace (2016), Mrs Bennet in Death Comes to Pemberley (2013), Lady Whitworth in Poldark, Mrs Landau in The Eichmann Show (2015), Alice in Queers (2017) and Vera in Humans (2015).
She has appeared in feature films such as The Aeronauts (2019), Down A Dark Hall (2018) and Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), and starred in innumerable radio shows including Incredible Women and Shush (which she co-wrote) and currently Jack and Millie. In recent years Rebecca has also become a fixture on comedy panel shows on British television and radio including The News Quiz and Have I Got News for You.
She can currently be seen in HBO science fiction comedy Avenue 5 alongside Hugh Laurie and the BBC1 comedy The Other One.
Rebecca is also the author of two books, ‘Impossible Things Before breakfast’ and ‘Curious – True Stories and Loose Connections’, a collection of autobiographical stories which was shortlisted for the National Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year.
Rebecca has worked with several charities to raise awareness about mental health and is a Patron of ‘Anxiety UK’. She is also an ambassador for Together For Short Lives and the deaf-blind charity ‘Sense’.
She won the 2010 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for The Thick of It.”
Image by photographer, Wolf Marloh
