[7][8] Her broadcast writing has included regular credits on BBC Radio 1's late-night experimental comedy show The Milk Run and BBC Radio 4's long-running The Now Show as well as the Dog Almighty edition of Channel 4's Comedy Lab series and the 2007 series of Channel 4's The Friday Night Project.

(a stand-up comedy lecture about the history of the space rocket) was nominated as Best Show and she won the Best Individual Performer award.

Her second full-length show Helen Keen: The Primitive Methodist Guide to Arctic Survival (the true story of an ancestor trapped overwinter on an arctic whaling ship) ran throughout the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2009 before embarking upon a similar tour of science festivals.

Also in this show and in interviews[15] Keen, a postman's daughter, discussed her working-class family background and her early experience of selective mutism.

[16][17][18] Keen also curates and comperes Spacetacular!, a space-themed comedy quiz night along with Londonist editor Matt Brown.

Alongside Keen, the show starred Susy Kane and Peter Serafinowicz and was produced by Gareth Edwards.

Big Problems with Helen Keen, which applied the same format to a broader range of scientific issues, was broadcast on Radio 4 in 2015.