Pamela Stephenson
Pamela shot to UK fame in 1979 as a comedienne, actress and sex symbol in Not the Nine O'Clock News.
She met and married fellow comedian Billy Connolly in 1989 and turned her comedy career on its head by pursuing psychology instead. She's now a well known and respected clinical psychologist and author.
Pamela was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia. She briefly attended the University of New South Wales before transferring to the National Institute for Dramatic Art, graduating in 1971 with Bachelor of Arts equivalency. She built a career in Australian theatre, playing leading roles with the Sydney Theatre Companyincluding Threepenny Opera, Peer Gynt and Edward Bond's Lear.
In 1976 Pamela arrived in the UK where she proceeded to build a TV career. She was an overnight sensation in the award-winning TV series Not the Nine O'Clock News, renowned for her impersonations of Angela Rippon, Jan Leeming, Kate Bush and Janet Street-Porter. During the latter phases of Not the Nine O’Clock News she also established herself as a live stand-up comic, beginning at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
She appeared in a number of films and other television projects, and eventually returned to the stage to play Mabel in the Joseph Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1983. In 1984 she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in New York. Her film career also grew to include Superman III, Bloodbath at the House of Death and Mel Brooks' History of the World Part One.
In 1991, her family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she first began her studies in Psychology at Antioch University. She obtained a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the California Graduate Institute in 1996. Pamela is currently a California-licensed clinical psychologist.
As an author, Pamela has published five books to date. In 2002, she wrote a best-selling psycho-biography on her husband, entitled Billy. This was followed by Bravemouth: Living with Billy Connolly. In 2005 she wrote Treasure Islands: Sailing the South Seas in the Wake of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson, based on her travels around the South Pacific Ocean. This was followed by Murder or Mutiny, which documented another voyage to discover the fate of an ancestor. In 2007, Head Case: Treat Yourself to Better Mental Health was published, and Sex Life: How Our Sexual Encounters and Experiences Define Who We Are made its hardback debut in 2011.
From 2007 to 2010 Pamela presented three series of the BAFTA nominated show Shrink Rap for More 4. In it, she interviewed various celebrities using psychotherapeutic techniques focusing on relating childhood experiences and traumas to the adult difficulties of the celebrities. She has been a regular contributor to Psychologies Magazine and the Australian Women’s Weekly and writes a weekly column for The Guardian entitled 'Sexual Healing'.
She competed in series eight of Strictly Come Dancing, attracting a wave of media attention whilst making it to the grand final, and subsequently participated in the live arena tour.