Sandra Birgitte Toksvig OBE (/ˈtɒksvɪɡ/; Danish: [ˈsænti ˈtsʰʌksˌviˀ]; born 3 May 1958)[1] is a Danish-British broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer on British radio, stage and television.

[9][10] She read law, archaeology and anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a first-class degree and receiving two prizes (The Raemakers and the Theresa Montefiore Awards) for outstanding achievement.

Toksvig began her comedy career at Girton,[14] where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman show at the Footlights.

She was there at the same time as Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery and Emma Thompson, and wrote additional material for the Perrier award-winning Cambridge Footlights Revue.

73 (1982–1986), the Sandwich Quiz,[15] The Saturday Starship, Motormouth, Gilbert's Fridge, for Television South, and factual programmes such as Island Race and The Talking Show, produced by Open Media for Channel 4.

On radio, she is a familiar voice for BBC Radio 4 listeners, having appeared on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, The Unbelievable Truth, and as the chair of The News Quiz, where she replaced Simon Hoggart in September 2006, but left in June 2015 in order to enter politics to champion women's rights.

[18] In 1993, Toksvig wrote a musical, Big Night Out at the Little Sands Picture Palace, for Nottingham Playhouse, co-starring with Anita Dobson and Una Stubbs.

Toksvig wrote a play entitled Bully Boy which focused on post-traumatic stress among British servicemen.

[23] In the 2013 Christmas Special of BBC's Call the Midwife, Toksvig made a cameo appearance as grumpy ward nurse Sister Gibbs.

[24][25] On 28 April 2015, it was announced that Toksvig would leave BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz in June at the end of the 28th series, which was scheduled to begin on 15 May of that year.

The show is in great shape and, like a good house guest, you should always depart when people still wish you'd stay a bit longer."

The BBC said Toksvig had made the "difficult decision" to leave in order "to embark on a new and exciting stage of her career".

Her choices included Joe Nichols ("What's a Guy Gotta Do"), Gustav Winckler, The Weather Girls, Barbra Streisand and Bonnie Langford.

[29][30] Her most recent play Silver Lining opened at the Rose Theatre Kingston on 11 February 2017, before touring to Portsmouth, Oxford, Cambridge, Ipswich, Keswick, York and Salford.

It stars Rachel Davies, Keziah Joseph, Maggie McCarthy, Joanna Monro, Sheila Reid and Amanda Walker.

These 10-minute sessions promoted the activities of women across the ages, being inspired by items from Toksvig's own library of books and biographies.

Toksvig collaborated with Björn Ulvaeus on "Mamma Mia:The Party" in 2018, leading to her officiating at his wedding to Christina Sas in Copenhagen on 21st September 2024.

[36] Her 2006 young adult book, Hitler's Canary is a Holocaust story told by a boy named Bamse and his family.

In 2020, Toksvig wrote and presented a podcast series called We Will Get Past This[40] which aimed to provide "virtual chicken soup for the soul"[40] during the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, by sharing stories of notable women from her book collection.

Toksvig began presenting the revival edition of the daytime game show Fifteen-to-One in April 2014.

[42] Toksvig took over from Stephen Fry as host of QI, making her "the first female presenter of a British mainstream TV comedy panel show", a fact she found extraordinary in 2016.

[48] In January 2025, Toksvig presented "Sandi's Great British Woodland Restoration"; a Channel 4 three-part documentary series.

[49] Toksvig first came to wider public prominence in 1994 because the charity Save the Children dropped her services as compère of its 75th anniversary celebrations after she came out as gay.

In September 2018, as the BBC gender-pay-gap controversy continued to unfold, Toksvig reported that she was only paid 40% of what Fry, her predecessor, had received.

[62][63] She has received some criticism for joking about the Tories in 2011 (they've "put the 'N' into cuts" to child benefit),[64] but had said Prime Minister Theresa May is "a good person".

[66] In 2023, Toksvig stated the reluctance of the Church of England to accept same sex marriage was harming gay people.

And I'm afraid the very conservative people who interpret the Bible with less love than I would hope are causing severe mental health problems for the LGBTQ+ community.

[67] Later that year, she spoke with Louis Staples for the i newspaper about this, saying "They don't deal with gay people or women in an equitable manner.

[29] In her late fifties, she lost a significant amount of weight on medical advice and credits this with giving her the confidence to go back to television.

[43] In late 2022, Toksvig was hospitalised in Australia with bronchial pneumonia, and was forced to cancel her upcoming New Zealand tour dates.