Comedian Sophie Willan rose to fame as the star and creator of Alma’s Not Normal, having fell in love with acting while on a holiday to Ibiza with her beloved grandmother
Comedian Sophie Willan is known for her wit and charm, and once left the panel of Never Mind The Buzzcocks redfaced after making a shocking confession.
As the creator and lead star of Alma’s Not Normal, Sophie is a familiar face on our TV screens but she’s taking on a whole new challenge as part of this year’s Great Celebrity Bake Off. Alongside fellow competitors Gbemisola Ikumelo, Phil Wang and Kate Garraway, the 37-year-old will be looking to impress the judges, and maybe even score a Hollywood handshake, to be crowned winner.
Having appeared on other shows including Taskmaster and The Last Leg Correspondents, Sophie has warmed viewers hearts thanks to her charisma and candidness. Last year, she appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and left the other celebs in shock when she confessed to having sex in the Blue Peter Garden.
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During one moment of the show, the TV star was asked about the weirdest place she has had sex. In response, Sophie explained that it happened to be at Media City in Salford, Manchester, adding that she was caught mid-way through her intimate encounter by security guards.
“The Blue Peter garden. It was a full moon, I’d drunk a lot of Guinness. There was a big shrub we thought would be a good spot. The security came over on those little scooters and said, ‘ We can all see you in the studios on CCTV’. I never even got a badge”, she said.
But it seems the Ludwig actress is no stranger to opening up. While on the show, she also confessed to stealing from a Greggs van. She explained: “The naughtiest thing I’ve ever done is robbing a Greggs van. We were quite drunk and really hungry. A man was unloading the van so we took one box each.”
Prior to cracking into comedy and acting, Sophie grew up in Bolton and she was raised by her grandmother Denise between stints in foster care. It was during one holiday to Ibiza with Denise that Sophie discovered acting.
“She was off dancing, so I joined the hotel drama club. Everything had a purpose from then. It sounds a bit of a cliché, but writing and performing were the real anchor in my life. It was a chance to recycle experiences. I used to prepare monologues and wish I was Thora Hird,” she told The Times in 2018.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2021, she added: “I’m a natural show-off. I always liked making people laugh – my grandma, my friends. I got called the class clown, which feels very accurate. I think I was just a very naturally creative person – my family are quite creative. And Bolton’s a very funny place: there’s a natural humour there.”
After getting the acting bug, Sophie joined a theatre company in Manchester and became the first recipient of the BBC’s Caroline Aherne Bursary in 2017. Because of this, she was awarded £5,000 to support the development of her work, from which Alma’s Not Normal was created.
The semi-autobiographical show followed Alma, a working-class woman from Bolton, as she attempted to make it in the acting industry. Like Alma, Sophie spent time in care due to her mother’s drug addiction and turned to turned to sex work briefly to pay the bills.
Shortly after the first series of Alma’s Not Normal aired on BBC, Sophie’s beloved grandmother died. One year later she wrote about the death of Alma’s grandma Joan as part of the show, and later dedicated her BAFTA win in 2022 to her gran.
“She was very encouraging. I was very good at twerking when I was way too young, and she’d get me at barbecues for PTAs and say, “show them your twerk!” I can’t imagine how uncomfortable I must have made everybody,” she joked to the Metro.
Speaking about writing about grief, she added: “It was really important to show it how I’d experienced people dying of cancer, the mundane of the humour and the fact that they often get asked when they’re dying, we never get to see that”.
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