Josie Lawrence (born Wendy Lawrence; 6 June 1959) is an English actress and comedian. She is best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? and as Manda Best in EastEnders.
Early life
Lawrence was born Wendy Lawrence on 6 June 1959 in Old Hill in the Black Country, West Midlands. Her parents were Bert Lawrence and Kathleen Lawrence, née Griffin, who were married in 1948. She has twin siblings, John and Janet, who are ten years her senior (1949). They were brought up in nearby Cradley Heath, where their father worked for British Leyland and their mother as a dinner lady. Lawrence wanted to be an actress at the early age of 5 and at 16 joined the Barlow Players in Oldbury.
She attended Rowley Regis Grammar School, where she took part in drama. The school closed in 1975, and became the Rowley Sixth Form College, and was later demolished. The St Michael's Church of England High School, Rowley Regis was built on the former site. She started in drama aged 16 with Oldbury Repertory Players playing Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Barlow Theatre near Langley Green railway station.
She later studied at Dartington College of Arts from 1978 to 1981, receiving a Bachelor of Arts honours degree.
Career
Stage
Her first acting role was as a young boy in a production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at the Half Moon Theatre (in 2016 she became a patron of the theatre). During the 1980s, she was also involved in a play called Passionaria at the Newcastle Playhouse, starring Denise Black and Kate McKenzie, and they later formed the jazz group Denise Black and the Kray Sisters.
Her work in comedy began as a result of starring in a Donmar Warehouse play called Songs For Stray Cats and hearing the audience invited to supply lines and ideas for improvisers appearing in after-show cabaret.