Francesca Martinez

[1] Martinez first came to public attention in 1994, when she made her debut on the television series Grange Hill, where she went on to portray the role of Rachel Burns for a total of 55 episodes.

Martinez's debut play, All of Us, was scheduled to be performed at the National Theatre in 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A year after she began performing stand-up comedy,[5] in 2000, Martinez became the first female comic to win the prestigious Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award at the Edinburgh Festival.

[10] In April 2008, Martinez made global headlines when (live on Channel 4 News) she became the first Olympic torch bearer to pull out of the London relay in protest over China's treatment of Tibet.

[12] In October 2012, she made her debut appearance on BBC Radio 4's topical panel show The News Quiz, alongside regulars Jeremy Hardy and Sandi Toksvig.

[citation needed] In 2015, she opened series 11 of Live At The Apollo, which also featured Alan Carr and Nish Kumar.

[16] An outspoken opponent of welfare reform by the government, she uses her public profile to raise issues about disability and fight for what she believes would be a fairer system.

In 2015 she helped organise This Changes Everything, a one-day event on climate and social justice, with Naomi Klein, Russell Brand, and many other speakers.

In July 2015, Martinez endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.

[25] In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, she signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election.