About Jenny Eclair
Jenny Eclair (born Jenny Clare Hargreaves; 16 March 1960) is a Malaysian-born English comedian, novelist, and actress, best known for her roles in Grumpy Old Women between 2004 and 2007 and in Loose Women in 2011 and 2012. == Early life == Eclair was born to English parents in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, where her father, Derek Hargreaves, a major in the British Army, had been posted in 1952. The family lived in Malaysia, Singapore, and Germany before settling in Lancashire. Eclair returned to England when she was two years old, and she started her education at Queen Mary school (now AKS Lytham) in Lytham St Annes. She is said to have adopted the alternative surname Eclair (later her stage name) in her teens, when she was at a disco in Blackpool and pretended to be French. She studied at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama (now Manchester Metropolitan University) and joined a cabaret group variously referred to as Kathy Lacreme and the Rum Babas, and Cathy La Crème and the Rum Babas. After she moved to London, Eclair's first job was at Camberwell Arts College as a life model, which she did for about two terms. She then saw an advert in The Stage looking for novelty acts and found work doing punk poems. In 1989, when she was named the Time Out Cabaret Award winner, she said it "was nice because it's the first time I've ever won without having to run 100 metres balancing an egg on a spoon." In 1995, Eclair was the first woman to win the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for her show Prozac and Tantrums. In a 2024 interview with The Guardian, she said that the prize "didn't make me feel fulfilled" and that she "unravelled" after she had won it.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.