Ronni Ancona's Biography

Ronni (Veronica) Ancona was born in Troon in Scotland in 1968. Her father was a Navy commander and her mother an artist.

Even at school, although shy, Ronni Ancona was displaying her taste for performance when she started a comedy troupe called Pot's People - a pun on Pan's People.

Ancona studied design at St Martins and for a short while was a teacher, but she started stand-up comedy and, in 1993, she won Time Out's New Comedian of the Year.

Ronni Ancona became famous mainly through her impressions, in particular as Alistair McGowan's partner in The Big Impression, for which Ancona was named best actress at the Comedy Awards in 2003.

Ancona and McGowan were also partners in their personal life for a few years.

In an interesting interview with The Mirror, Ronni Ancona said:

"We clicked. The show was always what we wanted. It's what we dreamed of. Ironically it came along after we split, but there was never a question that we wouldn't work together ..."

Her most well-known impressions include Victoria Beckham, Nigella Lawson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Carol Smillie.

Ronni Ancona has branched out from just impersonating roles. She was cast as Maggie in The Key on BBC2, Anita in A Cock and Bull Story, Beline in Molière's The Hypochondriac at the Almeida, and Barbara in the BBC's Gideon's Daughter.

Ronni Ancona did not desert the world of impressions however and in 2007, she had her own sketch show on BBC1.

Ronni Ancona is married to Gerard Hall, a hospital doctor at the Royal London.

In July 2008 it was announced that Ronni Ancona would star in BBC One's new eight-part drama, Hope Springs.

In 2009 Ronni Ancona co-authored with Alistair McGowan the book A Matter of Life and Death: Or How to Wean A Man off Football.

Video of Ronni Ancona on Room 101