Katie Cariad Lloyd (born 1983) is a Welsh comedian, actress, writer, and podcaster. She is a member of the improvisational comedy group Austentatious, the creator and host of Griefcast, and an improv teacher.
Lloyd was nominated in 2011 for Best Newcomer at the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards for her debut solo show, Lady Cariad's Characters. She also won the Edtwinge award for most positively tweeted-about show during the Fringe.
Lloyd's podcast, Griefcast has won several awards, including best Entertainment Podcast and Podcast of the Year at the British Podcast Awards and an ARIA Award for Best Podcast.
In November 2023, it was announced that Lloyd signed a five-book deal with Hachette Children's Group.
Early life Lloyd was born in North London in 1983. She is of Welsh descent on her father's side. Her father ran his own business. Her mother was a working class background, growing up in the East End of London. Lloyd has an older brother; four years her senior.
Growing up, Lloyd's parents were interested in alternative ideas and lifestyles, and were members of the Erdhard Seminar Training (EST) (now Landmark Forum) organisation, and visited the intentional community known as Findhorn.
Lloyd grew up going to the theatre. The first time knew she wanted to perform was when she saw a performance of Lady Macbeth at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre when she was 4 years old.
Lloyd's father died of pancreatic cancer in April 1998 (having been diagnosed in February of that year) aged 44, when she was 15. Lloyd had to sit her GCSEs a month after his death, but managed to do well. Her paternal grandfather died six months after her father's death.
She studied English literature at the University of Sussex, where she first met her friend and fellow comedian Sara Pascoe. Lloyd worked with Pascoe as a tour guide on open-top buses in London. Whilst appearing on Would I Lie to You? Lloyd mentioned working at a call-centre where she was fired for impersonating various accents; whilst on QI she mentioned that she has also worked as a barmaid.
Career Television and radio work Lloyd has performed in numerous sketches on BBC Comedy Online including Funtime (a Dawson Bros. pilot), The ProposalBBC Online "Cariad Lloyd The Proposal" and Dirty Dancing.BBC Online "Dirty Dancing" 2012 She has performed for the BBC Radio 4 shows Newsjack, My First Planet, The Now Show, Small Scenes and The Guns of Adam Riches.
Lloyd has appeared on television shows such as Channel 4's Cardinal Burns and CBBC's Fit and DNN, and in films such as Baby Cow Productions' Caravan and Film4's Hallo Panda.
She wrote and performed in her own comedy pilot for BBC Three, The Cariad Show. In May 2014, BBC Radio 4 aired a pilot for The Cariad Radio Show, which was featured on the BBC Comedy of the Week podcast. Since 2014, she has been co-writing and performing in the BBC Radio Wales sketch comedy show Here Be Dragons.
In 2014, Lloyd starred as Holly in the BBC Three comedy pilot Vodka Diaries and as Poppy in the comedy series Give Out Girls on Comedy Central. In 2015, she played Dawn, a warden in a young offenders' institution in the BBC Three comedy series Crims. In 2016, she appeared in the initial two episodes of Walliams & Friend on BBC One. She was also a series regular, playing several semi-improvised characters on Murder in Successville with Tom Davis.
Lloyd is a regular panellist on QI, having appeared in 16 episodes as of October 2026. She has also appeared on Have I Got News for You, Would I Lie to You?, The News Quiz and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
She appeared in the final series of Peep Show as Megan.
In 2020, she appeared in Sara Pascoe's comedy series Out of Her Mind for BBC television.
In March 2021, she presented the BBC Radio 4 programme What Have We Learnt About Grief? This programme mentioned the work of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. From March 2024, she appeared as a member of the Wales team on Round Britain Quiz.
Live performance In 2011, Lloyd took her debut solo show, Lady Cariad's Characters to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show was about six characters, with the premise that she had booked loads of acts and they hadn't shown up, so it was just Lloyd performing all the characters. She was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards for the show. She also won the Edtwinge award for most positively tweeted-about show during the Fringe.
Lloyd has performed in a variety of live shows since 2006, including The Freewheelin' Cariad Lloyd at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2012. In 2013, she performed in The 50 Hour Improvathon at Hoxton Hall, and The Freewheelin' Cariad Lloyd at Soho Theatre among others. In 2014, she performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with Louise Ford in Cariad and Louise's Character Hour.
Lloyd is a member of the improvisational comedy group Austentatious. In 2014, the show won the Chortle Award for Best Character, Improv or Sketch Act, and two DVDs of one of their live shows have been released by Go Faster Stripe in 2015 and 2018. Other members of the group include Rachel Parris, Amy Cooke-Hodgson and Joseph Morpurgo.
Writing Lloyd's book, You Are Not Alone,- - was published in 2023. In a review in The Times, the book was described as "a blackly funny, honest, thought-provoking and compassionate book that will be of comfort to all who know loss".
Llyod is a judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction.
Podcasts
Lloyd created and hosted the podcast Griefcast, a series of conversations about death, bereavement, and coping with the loss of a loved one. It won several awards, including "Best Entertainment Podcast", "Best Interview Podcast" and "Podcast of the Year" at the British Podcast Awards and an ARIA Award for "Podcast of the Year".
Lloyd has appeared on other comedians' podcasts including Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown in 2012, Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in 2016, Do the Right Thing in 2017, and Mike Wozniak's "St. Elwick's Neighbourhood Association Newsletter Podcast" as Veronica Tooze MBE, in 2021.-
Personal life Lloyd is married and had her first child in 2018.
Lloyd is an ambassador of Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 2004 Pour un temps The Sister Short films 2006 Hallo Panda Sarah 2010 0507 (unknown) 2012 What Time Do You Call This? Jo 2013 Gus and His Dirty Dead Dad Ffion 2017 Custom Love Isabella 2018 The 1st Julia Mister Biscuits Andrea 2019 Roundheads and Cavaliers Alice Asparagus Tips Asparagus
Television Year Title RoleChannel NotesRef 2012 Cardinal Burns VariousChannel 4 Series 1, Episodes 2, 3, 6 2012–2014 Comedy Feeds Various / HollyBBC Three Episodes: "Dawson Bros. Funtime", "The Cariad Show" and "Vodka Diaries" 2013 Fit VariousCBBC Episode: "#1.2" DNN: Definitely Not Newsround Stacey-May Anais Episode: "#1.1" Badults Fiona Episode: "Past"The Cariad ShowVarious, WriterBBC ThreePilot 2013–2014 Crackanory Miss Hopps / Tamsin / Sheila / Mary Hardacre Series 1, Episodes 2 & 3, and Series 2, Episodes 3 & 4 2014 GameFace Lucie Television film Siblings Debbie Episode: "Balcombe's Funeral" Toast of London Lindy Makehouse Episode: "Buried Alive" Give Out Girls Poppy Main role. Episodes 1–6 2015 Crims Dawn Recurring role. Episodes 1–6 The Delivery Man Alice Episode: "Truth" Inside No. 9 Gemma Episode: "Séance Time" Ruby Robinson Virginia Robinson Television film Marley's Ghosts Miss Randolph Episode: "#1.2" Peep Show Megan Series 9, 5 episodes Sky Comedy Christmas Shorts Mum Episode: "Joseph Morpurgo's Christmas" 2015–2017 Murder in Successville Various Series regular, 8 episodes 2015, 2017, 2019 Have I Got News for You Herself - Guest panellist Episodes: "#49.7", "#53.5" and "#57.5" 2015–2025 QI Herself - Panellist 16 episodes 2016 Drunk History Anne Boleyn Episode: "Geordie Shore Special" I Want My Wife Back Keeley Series regular, 5 episodes Shimmer and Shine Princess Samira (UK voice) Episodes: "Welcome to Zahramay Falls" and "Flying Flour" Morgana Robinson's The Agency Hannah Episode: "#1.3" Halloween Comedy Shorts Estate Agent Episode: "Ross Noble's Horror: The Catchment" Walliams & Friend Sammy / Various Episodes: "Jack Whitehall" and "Harry Enfield" Tracey Ullman's Show Make-up Assistant Episodes: "#1.1" and "The Best of..." Virtually Famous Herself - Panellist Episode: "#3.2" 2016, 2017 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Herself - Contestant Episodes: "#8.02", "#11.7" and "#14.1" 2017 The Real History of Sex Various Mini-series Josh Karen Episode: "Bicycles & Babies" The Last Leg Herself Episodes: "The Correspondents 5: Trump Hunters" and "The Correspondents 9: Sanitising Period Poverty" 2018–2025 Pointless Celebrities Herself - Contestant Episodes: "#10.41", "#12.18", "#15.23" and "#17.20" 2018 Would I Lie to You? Herself - Panellist Series 11, Episode 8 Funny Women: Julie Walters Herself Television film 2019 This Time with Alan Partridge Alice Fluck Series 1, Episode 1 Hypothetical Herself - Guest Series 1, Episodes 7 & 8 Lee and Dean Dani Series 2, Episodes 1–5 Tourist Trap Llinos Lyn Series 2, Episode 3: "Screen" The Snail and the Whale Teacher (voice) Television film 2020 Sick of It Stallholder Series 2, Episode 5: "Use by Date" Out of Her Mind Scoopy Series 1, 5 episodes 2021 Superworm Mama Beetle / Mama Toad (voice) Television film 2021–2022 Richard Osman's House of Games Herself - Contestant Series 5, Episodes 31–35, and Series 6, Episodes 56–60 2022 The Witchfinder Dorothy Series 1, Episode 4 2022, 2024 Between the Covers Herself - Panellist Series 4, Episode 2, and Series 8, Episode 4 2023 Tabby McTat Prunella (voice) Television film 2023–2025 Changing Ends Miss Gideon Recurring role. 7 episodes 2024 Beyond Paradise Claire Moss Series 2, Episode 2 My Sexual Abuse: The Sitcom (The Actual Sitcom) Herself / Auntie / Defence Barrister Television Special 2026 Ellis Pippa Ellerson Series 2, Episodes 1 & 2: "Ashenham: Parts One and Two"
References
External links
Griefcast