Sophie Duker

Sophie Duker (born January 1990 ) is a British stand-up comedian and writer.

Early life Duker was born in London to first-generation immigrants from West Africa. Her mother is from Cameroon and her father is from Ghana. She attended North London Collegiate School until 2008 before studying French and English at Wadham College, Oxford. She joined the Oxford Imps in her first year at university.

Career An alumna of the Pleasance Comedy Reserve, Duker was shortlisted for the Funny Women award in 2015. She founded and hosted the "Manic Pixie Dream Girls" show as part of Edinburgh's Free Festival in 2016 and 2017.

She has written for the Huffington Post and she was an assistant producer for Frankie Boyle's New World Order and a researcher for 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. In 2019, she appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Frankie Boyle's New World Order, Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions Apply, and Mock the Week, and in 2020 in 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

In 2017, Duker appeared in a Turtle Canyon short titled "The Dates", which explores bisexual dating culture.

In 2018, Duker set up the comedy night "Wacky Racists", which currently has a monthly residency at 2Northdown in King's Cross, London, and performs spin-off shows at festivals and events across the UK. In December 2019, Soho Theatre hosted a seasonal Christmas "Wacky Racists" special.

Duker co-starred in the pilot for a hidden camera sketch show on Channel 4 called Riot Girls as well as on the Comedy Central UK comedy show What I Wish I’d Said in 2018.

Her first stand-up show, "Diet Woke", premiered in 2018. She took her 2019 show, "Venus", to the Brighton Fringe and the Edinburgh Fringe, performing at the Edinburgh Pleasance from 31 July to 25 August 2019. In 2019, Duker appeared on the hip-hop comedy panel show Don't Hate the Playaz.

In September 2020, during one of Duker's appearances on Frankie Boyle's New World Order, the host Frankie Boyle proposed the motion "Black Lives Matter Glosses Over The Complexities Of A World Where We All Need To Come Together And Kill Whitey". A clip of Duker making a joke which repeated the phrase "kill whitey"—a phrase pre-approved by the BBC, according to Duker—was widely spread online. A Greater Manchester police hate crime investigation was opened after a report in early January and closed a week later with no action. Duker was subjected to racist harassment on social media over the comments.

In 2021, she was hired by Rumpus Media to co-present a new female-led topical panel show on Comedy Central called Yesterday, Today and The Day Before alongside fellow comedians Suzi Ruffell and Maisie Adam. However, Duker quit after the first episode in protest over cuts to her monologue about conflict between Israel and Palestine, with comedian Kemah Bob and the show's assistant producer also quitting the show alongside her.

Duker's first gig after lockdown was a fundraiser for Reclaim These Streets in July 2021. In 2022, she won the thirteenth season of the comedy panel game show Taskmaster, and the quiz show Celebrity Mastermind. She won her episode of the latter with the specialist subject of Alan Bennett's play The History Boys. She returned to the Edinburgh Festival line-up in 2022 with a show titled "Hag".

Personal life Duker is queer.

Filmography Year Title Notes 2017 The Dates Short film 2019–2023 Frankie Boyle's New World Order 10 episodes 2019–2020 Mock the Week 3 episodes 2019–2020 8 Out of 10 Cats 2 episodes 2019 The Dog Ate My Homework 1 episode 2019 Don't Hate the Playaz 1 episode 2019 Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions Apply 1 episode 2020 Roast Battle 1 episode 2020 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown 1 episode 2020 Comedy Game Night 1 episode 2020 Jonathan Ross' Comedy Club 1 episode 2020 Sorry, I Didn't Know 1 episode 2021 The Science(ish) of Stranger Things 1 episode 2021 The Last Leg 1 episode 2021 Richard Osman's House of Games 5 episodes 2021 Yesterday, Today and The Day Before 1 episode 2021 Joe Lycett's Got Your Back 2 episodes 2021 Comedians Giving Lectures 1 episode 2022 Taskmaster Winner, series 13 2022 Celebrity MastermindEpisode 10; Winner 2024 Taskmaster Runner-up, Champion of Champions III 2024 Richard Osman's House of Games 5 episodes, Redemption week