Liz Carr

Biography

Liz Carr is an English actress, comedian and an activist.

Liz is known for her roles such as Clarissa Mullery in Silent Witness, Garrick in Infinite(2021) among other roles.

Childhood- Family

Elizabeth Anne Carr was born on 21st April 1972 in Wirral, Cheshire, England, UK. She grew up in  in Bebington, Merseyside, England to Peter Carr and Patricia Carr.

She is of Irish ancestry from her father's side.

Liz and her mother Pat were more friends than mother-daughter. They have a very close relationship

[Liz Carr with mother Pat Carr]

[Liz Carr with parents on the graduation day]

Her parents and Liz had an argument just before her graduation day, she didn't want to attend the event, as she thought she would be embarassed by attending it, eventually her parents won, they got to see their ward graduating.

Her parents often attended her comedy acts. Her afther Peter died in 2020.

Education

• Upton Hall School FCJ: She attended the Catholic girls' grammar school located in Merseyside, England.
• Birkenhead High School Academy: She attended the state funded girls' Academy in Birkenhead, Wirral. 
• University of Nottingham: She graduated with a major in Law from the University of Nottingham. She specifically chose Nottingham University because it was one of the rare Universities at the time that had disabled access and personal care assistants. She graduated from the University in 1993.
• Unity Theatre, Liverpool: She did a theatre course in Liverpool in 2001 that changed the course of her life, it was here that she met Anne Cunningham and formed the disabled/ deaf women's sketch group "The Nasty Girls", they toured comedy festivals together.

When asked why she chose law, she said:

Law sounded glamorous. It was the era of LA Law on TV... It allowed me to have the same experience as everyone else. My time at uni was, like for so many teenagers but more so for me, about having a laugh, getting drunk for the first time, finding out who I was - life was full of expectations

Disability & activism

Liz has been disabled since age 7, due to her condition medically termed "arthrogryposis multiplex congenita", and has had to use the wheelchair since age 14. She often refers to her wheelchair during her acts as "meus thronus kaputus" (my throne)

After her time at the University, she worked as a disability equality trainer. She joined forces with the American disability rights group ADAPT in 2008, to raise money for them and in support of their protest against presidential candidate John McCain's position on Medicaid (which would not have been disabled friendly)

Debate on Assisted suicide: She was part of the BBS NewsNight debate that discussed assisted suicide. She was opposed to Lord Falconer's Assisted Dying Bill.

She has spoken against Euthanasia at multiple events, including

Liz and her personal assistant were attacked by a man armed with scissors on 10 August 2017,  he was eventually arrested and punished.

Relationship

Jo Church- A wheelie special wedding

On 1st of November in 2010, Liz and her long time partner Jo Church entered a civil partnership.

The decorations and food were inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, on selecting the specific date, she wrote:

Since we’ve both lost so many family and disabled friends along the way, we chose this date so that we could celebrate with those from our past and our present.

Her father gave the "father of the bride" speech for 12 minutes, covering her childhood, disability, comedy and how proud he was for her activism, and of course her new wife. It left all eyes moist, either with the inporational story or the laughter it caused.

The Dirty Dance: Jo and Liz  took dancing classes for the event, they made a video of them dancing to the song "Time of my Life" from Dirty Dancing, the movie had Patrick Swayze lift his parner above his head, in the video, the fire brigade came tothe rescue, they lifted Liz up in the air along with her chair. The video was played at the wedding.

Career

After her time at the University, she worked at Nottingham Law Centre, then as a disability equality trainer, and later as an independent living adviser.

Comedy

She joined Unity Theatre in 2001 and with Anne Cunningham formed "The Nasty Girls".

For six months until 2005, she worked at London’s Graeae Theatre Co for disabled people. 

In 2005, "Abnormally Funny People" a comedy group (comprising of Tanyalee Davis, Steve Day, Steve Best, Simon Minty and Chris McCausland) looking for disabled comedians for the SKY TV documentary came to know about Liz, when someone dropped out, they took Liz in.

She tried her solo comedy at Soho Theatre, and it was not received well. In 2007 she got a chance to perform at the Wolverhampton Arena in the event "It hasn’t Happened Yet". she created her puppet alter-ego Little Al.

Ouch! Podcast: She produces articles and podcasts for the BBC’s website. She co-hosted the podcast which won BBC's Royal Television Society award.

She has also worked at the production company "Hat- Trick Productions"

Acting

Her acting career started with theatre, She played the iconic "Mother Courage" from Bertolt Brecht's play "Mother Courage and Her Children". Next she was part of another Bertolt Brecht play, "The Exception and the Rule" which was played at "The Young Vic"

Silent Witness

In 2013, she joined the BBC crime thriller series "Silent Witness", where she played "Clarissa Mullery". Clarissa Mullery is Jack Hodgson's personal lab assistant, she first appears in season 16 in recurring role and after in main role.She gets invited by JAck to work with him at the Lyell Centre.

She appeared in a total of 79 episodes, spanning between 2013 and 2020. 

In supernatural mystery series "The OA", she appeared as Dr Marlow Rhodes in 2 of the episodes.

She appeared as Fenn in the Nextflix series "The Witcher". She appears in 2 episodes in the series.

In the British comedy fantasy series "Good Omens" she played angel Saraqael in the second season.

In the Disney+ supernatural series Loki, she played Judge Gamble in season 2.

The Normal Heart

In the later months of 2021, She played Dr. Emma Brookner in the West End revival of The Normal Heart at the Royal National Theatre. She won the Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in "The Normal Heart" at the 2022 Laurence Olivier Awards. It was also the first time a disabled person played that role on stage.

Facts and Trivia

• In 2007 she was runner up in the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition.
• She has voiced against the austerity drive in Britain which has crippled the funds to the disabled.
• She has voiced against the Disability Living Allowance being changed to personal independence plan and thousands and thousands of people had been reportedly cured when in fact they were not.
• She also feels disabled people need to be provided a means to transport to get education and work.
• She also did a musical on the Assisted suicide to portray the plight of the disabled.
• Initially when she was casted in Silent Witness there was a lot of talks in social media as to how would she manage to play the role. But as she showed her skills in acting everyone became convinced.

Loves Cats

• She has 3 adorable black cats namely Will Feral, Cat Fraser & Julie Catless Mews.
• She once helped to find a missing cat on twitter. This shows her love for cats.

Filmography

Movies

Series

Stage/ Theatre

Awards

Quotes

• [On Assisted Dying bill in UK] I fear we’ve so devalued certain groups of people – ill people, disabled people, older people – that I don’t think it’s in their best interests to enshrine in law the right of doctors to kill certain people.
• I'm not sure when I started to feel really confident but I would say it began at University.
• I think sometimes the biggest difficulty is knowing when to keep your mouth shut.
• I'm really glad that I never had when I was starting now was a crystal ball okay because I think sometimes you are how am I going to make the right decision what's right for me what career should I choose, what partner and so on.

Sources

1. Liz Carr on wikipedia
2.