Helen Margaret Lederer (born 24 September 1954[1]) is a British comedian, writer and actress who emerged as part of the alternative comedy boom at the beginning of the 1980s.

Produced by Jamie Rix with Clive Mantle and Nick Wilton, it won the Sony Award for best comedy and progressed to the TV version called Hello Mum.

She would be linked with this scene for the rest of the 1980s, with a supporting role as housemaid Flossie in Happy Families and numerous appearances in related shows and live performances.

Lederer played various roles, including that of a newsreader linking spoof headlines into clips which acted as punchlines, and a drunk Sloane who performed a monologue in each episode from a wine bar.

[8][9] In the 1990s, Lederer was recruited by her old contemporaries Mayall and Ade Edmondson to play supporting roles in two episodes of their sitcom Bottom, including a memorable part as a fallen millionairess on the make.

Lederer has always been a guest or supporting actress on programmes devised by or starring her alternative comedy contemporaries and, as such, has made a good, consistent career.

She has appeared on numerous radio panel games including Quote... Unquote, The News Quiz and Just a Minute and writes columns for newspapers and magazines.

Lederer was one of eight celebrities who spent a week learning the Welsh language in an eco-friendly campsite in Pembrokeshire for the S4C television series cariad@iaith:love4language shown in July 2011.

In October 2013, she played the midwife Mariam in Hollyoaks who was responsible for a baby-swap scandal, a role she reprised in 2015 before being killed off by the "Gloved Hand Killer".

[15] Lederer appears in the 2018 short film To Trend on Twitter in aid of young people with cancer charity CLIC Sargent with fellow comedians Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, David Baddiel and actor Jason Flemyng.