About

Kathy Burke was born at the Royal Free Hospital, London on 13 June 1964. She still lives in Islington, north London.

She is still single despite several proposals from a vicar and a professor, overwhelmed by her foul-mouthed and orange-haired Linda La Hughes character – “The professor wrote that his first wife wasn’t very attractive either so I thought, well, he’s fucked that”, she told one paper. She claims not to be broody but had a dream about a baby born during the Mozambique floods being left on her doorstep. Her perfect man is “a plumber who can read”.

She smokes Silk Cut. Drinks lager but likes champagne. Enjoys a smoke but not cocaine. She calls Ray Winstone “Raymond”; he calls her “Rita the Rottweiler” because of her grumpiness first thing in the morning. She loves fresh juice – carrot and orange a favourite when monged out – and good food.

She announced her intention to be a stripper when eight years old and living with her alcoholic builder father and two older brothers. Her mum died of cancer when she was two. She lost her virginity at 22, the same year she wrote her first play, and spent most of her twenties drunk.

Her best friends are fellow actresses Tilly Vosburgh and Elaine Lordan (Susan Rose and Lynne Hobbs respectively in Eastenders). She is good mates with Caroline Aherne and Liza Tarbuck. She has a still of Gary Oldman and Ray Winstone off-camera while filming Nil by Mouth on her wall. Her favourite directors are Todd Solondz (HappinessWelcome to the Dollhouse) and Shane Meadows (TwentyFourSeven).

She has an American agent but refuses to go to America and do all the meeting-and-greeting and lunches. Her British agent is Paul Hunt, who can be contacted at paul@the-hunted.co.uk. She is 5 foot 3 inches tall, with hazel eyes and brown hair.

If you want to learn more about Kathy directly, you could do worse than follow her on Twitter where she remains wonderfully unfiltered.

About this website

This website was designed, built, written and is hosted by Kieren McCarthy, a freelance journalist. Any mail regarding this site (corrections, additions, suggestions) should be sent to kieren@kierenmccarthy.co.uk. Any and all fan mail should be sent to Kathy’s agent – email address above.