Biography

Educated at Kent College, Pembury and Middlesex University, where she studied performing arts, Anna Crilly] began her comedy career by finishing as a finalist in the "So You Think You're Funny" competition at the 2003 Gilded Balloon. After two successful shows at the Edinburgh Fringe the following year, she was offered the role of Magda, the deadpan Eastern European housekeeper, in the BBC sitcom Lead Balloon, alongside Jack Dee. For this role she was nominated in 2008 for a British Comedy Award as Best Female Newcomer, eventually losing out to Katy Brand.

In 2013 Crilly began starring in her own sketch show on Channel 4, Anna & Katy, alongside regular comedy partner Katy Wix. Frequent guests include Lee Mack, with whom Wix and Crilly also star in BBC sitcom Not Going Out.

Since her break-out role in Lead Balloon, Crilly has become a regular on TV screens, starring in BBC children's comedy series Sorry I've Got No Head, alongside Nick Mohammed, Mel Giedroyc, Marek Larwood, Marcus Brigstocke, and William Andrews. Moreover, she also appeared as "woman" in a series 2 episode of Ricky Gervais's comedy Extras as an extra herself.

In 2011 and 2012, she played a waitress zombie slayer named Claire Parker in the BBC One and CBBC sitcom Pixelface, which was a spin-off from the sketch show Sorry, I've Got No Head. An inventive idea, it focused on what computer game characters do in the spare time, when not involved in the online world.

Crilly has also played Mel Gatwick in Tom Basden's long-running sitcom Party[/y], broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 2010 to 2018.