Julia Davis (born 25 August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She wrote and starred in comedies including Human Remains (2000), Nighty Night (2004–2005), Hunderby (2012–2015), Camping (2016), and Sally4Ever (2018). She is known for her dark or black comedy.
Davis is a nine-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won Best Comedy Writing for Hunderby in 2013 and the 2018 British Academy Television Award for Best Scripted Comedy for Sally4Ever. She has also received two RTS Awards and three British Comedy Awards. In addition to acting in her own works, she has appeared in a variety of other British television comedies, most notably portraying Dawn Sutcliffe in Gavin & Stacey (2007–2009, 2019, 2024). Her film roles include Love Actually (2003), Cemetery Junction (2010), Four Lions (2010), Phantom Thread (2017), and The Toxic Avenger (2023).
Early life and education Julia Davis was born in England in 25 August 1966. She was born in Lambeth, South London, grew up in Guildford, before moving to Bath, Somerset when she was 14. Her mother was a secretary, and her father a civil servant. She was raised in the Church of England, and then a more "fundamentalist" church. Aged 4, she attended a Church of England school. Her mother's father and brother were both vicars.
Davis describes her childhood as "normal" and "quite suburban". However, she has also said she had quite an "extreme mother", which means she grew up feeling quite insecure. Growing up, she thought she would become a teacher, although she hated school. Davis loved Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party as a child. She dates her interest in comedy to the age of seven, "when she recalled making her grandparents laugh by imitating "an old Scottish man"."
Davis sang in various folk bands as a teenager. Her first band was called "Hand-Knitted Air Rifles". Her favourite band growing up was Nirvana, and she found folk music too gentle.
After studying for a degree in English and Drama at the College of Ripon and York St John, she returned to Bath because she became ill with glandular fever ("something between glandular fever and ME...some unknown viral..."). In Bath, she began working "dead-end jobs", including teaching, nannying, bartending, cleaning and selling "massive mobile phones".
Career 1998–2000: Career beginnings Davis decided to become a comedian after her long illness. Davis also cites Julie Walters in Acorn Antiques as giving her the confidence to pursue a career in comedy. She was influenced by Steve Coogan and Chris Morris.
She joined a local drama group in Bath, where she met Jane Roth. Davis and Roth left the group and started a comedy double-act The Sisters of Percy. They did around six shows around Bath and Glastonbury. When Davis was around 25/26, she and Roth both joined an improv troupe, which included Welsh radio DJ (now actor and comedian) Rob Brydon, and comedian and actress Ruth Jones. The group also included actor Toby Longworth and his then-girlfriend radio producer Liz Ansty. Ansty was making a show called Five Squeezy Pieces for BBC Radio 4, which she got Davis involved with. The series was an all-female sketch comedy show, with Meera Syal, Arabella Weir, Maria McErlane, and Claire Calman.
Davis first appeared on television in the BBC sketch show Comedy Nation (1998). Arabella Weir introduced Davis to Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan who placed her as a regular cast member in the television sketch show Big Train (1998), the pilot episode of which was directed by Chris Morris. Chris Morris then cast her for his 1997–1999 radio series Blue Jam, its successor March–April 2000 TV show Jam, and Brass Eye. As a result of her introductions to various people in television and sending videotapes of her sketches to the BBC, in 1998, her agent sent a tape of various characters to Steve Coogan, he invited her to write for and participate in his shows during his 1998 national tour.
Davis went on to appear in many comedy television shows including Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible (2001), I'm Alan Partridge (2002), I Am Not an Animal (2004), Ideal (2005) and Nathan Barley (2005).
Human Remains (2000)
In November 2000, Human Remains, a dark comedy television series produced by Steve Coogan's production company Baby Cow, co-written by and co-starring Rob Brydon and Davis, debuted on BBC Two. It was produced by Alison MacPhail.
The series consisted of six fake documentaries (across six episodes), where Brydon and Davis played six different couples talking to camera about their unusual relationships. The scripts were mostly written through improvisation.
Davis won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance for the series. The Guardian said the series is "one of the best comedies of the past 10 years, though it hardly ever gets the recognition it deserves".
Nighty Night (2004–2005)
Henry Normal from Baby Cow suggested to Davis that she write something on her own, and write a half-hour pilot. In 2004 and 2005, Davis wrote and starred in two series of the BBC Three dark comedy Nighty Night. The show is centred on her character of peroxide "blonde" sociopathic beauty therapist Jill Tyrell. The show came out of a lot of improvisation work between Davis and Jane Stannis.
The character of Jill was inspired by a mixture of things, including: the character Beverly from Human Remains; and Davis' job in the Finance department of Bath University. She said that "Most of Jill is an amalgam of women I've seen or worked with in the West Country". Ruth Jones' character, Linda, was also a development of one of her characters in Human Remains. The character of Don was originally offered to Colin Firth, who did not respond to the offer.
The show was produced by Alison MacPhail, who had also produced Human Remains. The first series took three years to write. Davis' approach to writing is to writing scenes, rather than an overarching story. Jill's costume was created by Claire Finlay.
Davis was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance, and a British Comedy Award for Best Actress, and won a Royal Society of Television Award for Best Comedy Writer.
Davis was not happy with the second series, saying that "it was too ridiculous". She has also described it as a "failure" and "therefore a waste of my time". However, she has said she had ideas for a third series.
According to the Guardian, the public had assumed that the dark and "weird" parts of Human Remains were down to Rob Brydon, so Nighty Night "carried few expectations and Nighty Night was attended by no hype at all".
Davis has said that commissioning has changed significantly since Nighty Night, and she doubts it would have been commissioned in today's climate.
2007–2010: Gavin & Stacey and other From 2007 to 2009, she played Dawn Sutcliffe in Gavin & Stacey, a role which she reprised in 2019 for a Christmas special and in 2024 in the finale. She also featured in a behind-the-scenes documentary about the finale. When the first series was filmed, Davis was six weeks pregnant with twins.
In 2006, Davis appeared on Little Britain Abroad as a sexy Russian mail-order bride called Ivanka.
In 2009, Davis appeared, in the guise of Steve Coogan's personal assistant Debbie Bidwoden, in the TV film Steve Coogan – The Inside Story.
In 2009, Davis starred in a short film with Richard Ayoade for See Africa Differently, a campaign to showcase the under-reported progress from Africa.
Lizzie & Sarah (2010) Davis and Jessica Hynes met at a party thrown by director Edgar Wright and they soon became friends and comedy partners. Since 2003, Davis and Hynes produced improvised comedy for Resonance FM, under the title Peppatits. The Guardian described their broadcasts as "unusual, funny, sometimes quite disturbing."
In 2010, Davis co-wrote and co-starred in Lizzie and Sarah with Jessica Hynes. The pilot is about two middle-class housewives, who are treated badly by their husbands, who wreak revenge on all who have crossed them. The pilot aired on 20 March 2010 on BBC Two at 11:45pm. It was made by Baby Cow Productions, produced by Alison MacPhail, and directed by Elliot Hegarty.
The pilot received no publicity around its transmission, and, Vice says, the "BBC buried it in a graveyard slot". It was considered even darker than Davis's previous work. The Guardian described it as saying "it makes Nighty Night look like The Wind in the Willows and is perhaps the most challenging comedy Davis has written." Despite a Facebook campaign, the BBC did not commission a series. Davis was disappointed about this. The Guardian said that the pilot was "beautifully observed", "brave and hilarious" and its "familiarity...makes it both so painful and so funny".
In 2010, Julia Davis and Jessica Hynes performed as their characters from Lizzie and Sarah for the "Angina Monologues", a British comedy show featuring Victoria Wood about women's heart disease.
Also in 2010, Davis and Hynes took their collaboration to the Bristol Old Vic as part of the improv festival, Bristol Jam.
2011–2015: Psychobitches, Morning Has Broken Davis starred in productions such as: the short film For the Love of God (2007); The Alan Clark Diaries; and Persuasion, an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel.
In 2006, Davis starred in the television film Fear of Fanny, in which she played the celebrity chef Fanny Cradock. It was directed by Coky Giedroyc. Davis was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor for her performance.
In December 2011, Davis appeared in "Fifteen Million Merits", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror, as Judge Charity on the fictional talent show Hot Shot.
On 22 December 2011, she appeared as Anne Yeaman in the Christmas special and finale of the BBC Three comedy How Not to Live Your Life.
On 26 August 2012, Davis appeared in the pilot episode of Bad Sugar on Channel 4. A full series was set to air in 2013, but was cancelled due to availability of the cast and writers.
In 2013, Davis played various characters in BBC sketch show It's Kevin and in Psychobitches (Part of Playhouse Presents) on Sky Arts. She appeared in the Inside No. 9 episode "The Understudy" (Series 1; Episode 5) as a stage manager.
In 2014, Davis starred as an eccentric mother alongside Al Roberts (Stath Lets Flats) in the comedy short film The Bird, co-directed by Ben Target and Joe Parham.
In 2014, Davis co-wrote (with Nick Mohammed) and starred in a pilot for Channel 4 called Morning Has Broken, about a self-centred daytime TV host. It was inspired by daytime TV, particularly Lorraine Kelly's presenting. The pilot starred, alongside Davis and Mohammed: Georgie Glen, Seb Cardinal (Cardinal Burns), Jamie Demetriou and Asim Chaudhry. A full series of Morning Has Broken was commissioned but was not made. It was meant to star David Schwimmer as a US producer, alongside Davis.
In 2015, Davis and Marc Wootton created and starred in BBC Radio 4 comedy series Couples, about couples in therapy.
Hunderby (2012, 2015)
Davis created, wrote and starred in Hunderby, which aired for two series on Sky Atlantic in 2012 and 2015. Davis described the show as "Downton Abbey meets Geordie Shore". It was influenced by Rebecca, as well as Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The series is a black comedy set in the 1830s. She worked on the programme with Lucy Lumsden and Stuart Murphy, who were also behind Nighty Night at the BBC.
The work was scripted, not improvised. When talking about Hunderby and Sally4Ever, Alex Macqueen said that, for Davis, "if you're not on the verge of corpsing, it's not good enough".
For Hunderby, Davis won the BAFTA TV Craft Award for Writing – Comedy. The series was nominated for Best Scripted Comedy at the 2013 BAFTA TV Awards and Davis was nominated for Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme. It won the awards for Best New Comedy and Best Sitcom at the 2012 British Comedy Awards.
Camping (2016)