Andi Osho

Andi was born in Stratford East London and attended Sarah Bonnell Comprehensive School She studied drama at Barking College of Technology where peers included Razaaq Adoti Amistad 1997 Black Hawk Down 2001 Sarah Webb lead singer of acid jazz group D Influence and Idris Elba Pacific Rim 2013 The Wire 2002 She later went on to study TV production at Ravensbourne College of Design after which she took several roles at TV post production companies Andi also worked in TV broadcasting at Walt Disney Television International and was the technical ops manager at new media start up WhereItsAt After working as a post production supervisor on ITV soap Night Day 2001 Andi retrained as an actor at The Academy Drama School in London She made her stage debut in 2003 and went on to appear at several renowned fringe and offWest End venues including The Arts Theatre Riverside Studios Kings Head and Liverpool Everyman 2005 saw her powerful Time Out performance in Medea and as jazz singer Dolly Rathebe in Who Killed Mr Drum Andi ended the year with a No 1 tour of Dael Orlandersmiths Pulitzer nominated play Yellowman which received critical praise Andis TV debut was in longrunning BBC soap EastEnders 1985 In 2007 Andi began performing stand up comedy and in July of that year won the coveted Funny Women award at Londons Comedy Store She went on to be runner up at Hackney Empire New Act of The Year and Leicester Mercury Comedian of The Year This launched a successful television career which saw Andi make regular appearances on popular panel shows including Mock the Week 2005 and Never Mind the Buzzcocks 1996 She has also made two appearances on Jack Dee Live at the Apollo 2004 as well as three sell out tours of her solo stand up shows All The Single Ladies and Afroblighty She performed live in front of a 15000 strong audience at Londons O2 arena for the Channel 4 Great Ormond Street Comedy Gala She made her feature debut in Swinging with the Finkels 2011 opposite Sherlock 2010 and The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey 2012 star Martin Freeman Andi is an accomplished writer The One Lenny 2011 and Stand Up for the Week 2010 in which she also appeared Andi is also developing her own film and television projects She has written for Fox US and BBC TV and Radio and for several newspapers including The Times and The I and is a regular blogger In 2014 Andi wrote and produced Britiam 2014 a crowdsourced short film about Britishness which went on to win three awards and was officially selected for ten festivals She recently completed her second short The Grid 2015 a sci thriller starring newcomer Stony Blyden and Eastenders alumni Troy TitusAdams