Sophie Willan was born on 21 October 1987,[1][2] in Bolton where she grew up, and spent time in care as a child,[3][4] as her mother was a heroin addict.
In 2016 she took her debut stand-up series On Record, based on her experiences of growing up in and out of the care system, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The Mirror called it ‘Phoenix Nights meets Fleabag, guided by the spirit of Victoria Wood’;[14] The Times said, ‘Willan's writing is skilled and clearly very personal...uplifting and strangely enchanting’.
[16] Willan appeared as a contestant on the seventeenth series of the Channel 4 show Taskmaster which launched in March, 2024.
[17] Previewing the first episode, The Guardian's Phil Harrison commented that "Already, Willan looks like a potential all-timer contestant".
[19] Willan won a BAFTA Television Craft Award for Best Writer: Comedy for the pilot of Alma's Not Normal.