[1] Her father was fashion photographer and film director Terence Donovan; her mother, Diana (née St. Felix Dare),[5] was chairwoman of the English National Ballet School.
The producers were looking for a female interviewer who would act straight but use comedic lines, and searched everywhere – until they tried their receptionist, the rather posh-talking Donovan.
In the second series she presented shorts, 'Angel of Delight', in which she interviewed politicians (she once asked Denis Healey whether he would ever give Margaret Thatcher a "pearl necklace")[8] and got the co-host job with Iain Lee from late 1999–2000.
In 2000, Donovan was featured prominently in series one of sitcom My Family, playing Brigitte, Ben's annoying, superstitious dental assistant.
In 2002 she played Laura in Debbie Isitt's The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband while it ran at The Ambassadors Theatre in The West End.