Daisy Donovan

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title: "Daisy Donovan" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1973-births", "living-people", "alumni-of-the-london-academy-of-music-and-dramatic-art", "alumni-of-the-university-of-edinburgh", "english-film-actresses", "english-women-writers", "english-stage-actresses", "english-television-presenters", "participants-in-american-reality-television-series", "people-educated-at-st-paul's-girls'-school", "british-women-television-presenters", "actresses-from-london", "english-women-comedians", "comedians-from-london"] description: "British actor and television presenter (born 1973)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Donovan" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British actor and television presenter (born 1973) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
image
birth_name	Daisy Constance Donovan
birth_date
birth_place	London, England
nationality	British
alma_mater	London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
occupation
spouse
children	2
::

| image = | birth_name= Daisy Constance Donovan | birth_date = | birth_place = London, England | nationality = British | alma_mater = London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art | occupation = | spouse = | children = 2

Daisy Constance Donovan (born 23 July 1973) is an English television presenter, actress and writer.

Early life

Donovan was born in London. Her father was fashion photographer and film director Terence Donovan; her mother, Diana (née St. Felix Dare), was chairwoman of the English National Ballet School. She is sister to Rockstar Games co-founder Terry Donovan and half-sister to Big Audio Dynamite keyboard player Dan Donovan – and former sister-in-law of Patsy Kensit. Donovan went to the independent St Paul's Girls School in Hammersmith, London. She started reading Classics at the University of Cambridge before switching to study English at the University of Edinburgh, where she performed with the Drama Society. She then studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Career

Donovan became a receptionist, and then a runner on the first series of The Eleven O'Clock Show. The producers were looking for a female interviewer who would act straight but use comedic lines, and searched everywhere – until they tried their receptionist, the rather posh-talking Donovan. She made occasional appearance as "It Girl" Pandora Box-Grainger. In the second series she presented shorts, 'Angel of Delight', in which she interviewed politicians (she once asked Denis Healey whether he would ever give Margaret Thatcher a "pearl necklace") and got the co-host job with Iain Lee from late 1999–2000.

In 2000, Donovan was featured prominently in series one of sitcom My Family, playing Brigitte, Ben's annoying, superstitious dental assistant.

In 2002 she played Laura in Debbie Isitt's The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband while it ran at The Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.

Donovan subsequently hosted quiz shows: Does Doug Know? and the eponymous Daisy Daisy, which she also wrote and produced. In 2006, Donovan presented the British Fashion awards and later presented one series of a programme based in America called Daisy Does America.

Since 2006 she has concentrated on writing screenplays and acting in minor roles. Donovan appeared in Death at a Funeral (2007), Wild Child (2008) and I Give it a Year (2012).

Personal life

In 2005 she married her longtime boyfriend, Dan Mazer, a comedy writer and producer, in Morocco. They have two daughters, Maisy and Mini Ivy.

She lives in West London.

Filmography

::data[format=table]

Title	Role	Year	Episode / Series	Notes
Spiceworld: The Movie	Reporter	1997		uncredited
Still Crazy	Female Reporter	1998
Parting Shots		1998
The Eleven O'Clock Show	Presenter	1998–2000
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax	Alexanda / Marina	1999
My Family	Brigitte	2000	Series 1
Daisy, Daisy	Host	2001
Does Doug Know?	Host	2002
Second Nature	Kristina Kane / Amy O'Brien	2003
Poirot	Cornelia Robson	2004	Death on the Nile
Coming Up	Jen	2004	"Pillow Talk"
Millions	Dorothy	2004
Angel's Hell	Polly	2005
Daisy Does America	Host	2005
Death at a Funeral	Martha	2007
Wild Child	Miss Rees-Withers	2008
The Greatest Shows on Earth	Host	2013
::

References

References

1. [https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2006/apr/30/7days4.news2 "My Week: Daisy Donovan"]. ''The Guardian'' (30 April 2006). Retrieved 5 February 2016.
2. "GLOBOMAZERCOMULTRACORP LTD people - Find and update company information".
3. (25 November 1996). "Terence Donovan, 60, Society Photographer – New York Times".
4. Leith, William (30 March 2002).[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/mar/30/weekend.williamleith "Queen of Cringe"]. ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
5. (20 May 2008). "It's funny how being a mum changed Daisy Donovan". Daily Record.
6. "Daisy Does America – Daisy Donovan".
7. Power, Vicki. (10 June 2013). "Daisy Donovan: 'I still can't believe I asked Denis Healey if he'd given Margaret Thatcher a pearl necklace'". The Daily Telegraph.
8. Liam O'Brien. (22 June 2013). "The Conversation: Daisy Donovan, TV presenter – Profiles – People". [[The Independent]].
9. "Theatre review: The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband at New Ambassadors".
10. (2 November 2007). "Daisy's blooming".
11. "The Times".
12. Jones, Alice. (January 27, 2016). "Dan Mazer interview: Sacha Baron Cohen's partner in crime on Dirty Grandpa and the new Bridget Jones film". [[The Independent]].
13. Eames, Tom. (10 June 2013). "Daisy Donovan makes TV comeback".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::