Gina Yashere
| Gina Yashere | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Gina Obedapo Yashere |
| Born |
6 April 1974 Bethnal Green, London |
| Medium | Stand-up, television |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1996-present |
| Genres | Social satire, character comedy, Observational comedy |
| Subject(s) | Culture, race, stereotypes, current events |
| Website | ginayashere |
Gina Obedapo Yashere (born 6 April 1974) is a British comedian.
Yashere was born in Bethnal Green, London. Her mother was an immigrant from Nigeria. Before becoming a comedian, Yashere worked as a lift maintenance technician and engineer.
Yashere was a finalist in the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition in 1996. She has appeared in many television programmes. She may be best known for appearing in the comedy series The Lenny Henry Show, where she played Tanya and Mrs Omokorede, the pushy Mum. She voiced Keisha on the animated series Bromwell High. In 2005, she appeared in the reality television series, Comic Relief does Fame Academy, in aid of Comic Relief, and she co-hosted the 2006 and 2007 MOBO Awards alongside 2 face and Coolio. She has made numerous appearances on Mock the Week, and appears on the CBBC show Gina's Laughing Gear.
In 2007, Yashere was featured on the reality show Last Comic Standing, auditioning in Sydney, Australia. She was among the ten finalists, but on 1 August 2007, she and Dante were the first two finalists eliminated.
In 2008, she became the first Briton to perform on Def Comedy Jam. On 3 September 2009, she appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and performed a stand-up comedy routine. On 24 December, she appeared on Live at the Apollo. She appeared twice on the short-lived primetime show The Jay Leno Show: on 21 October 2009, a video of Yashere showed her giving free fortune-telling readings to passers-by, and on 25 November 2009, she operated a walk-in psychic booth. Since 2010, she has appeared semi-regularly on the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, in a sketch comedy series called Madame Yashere: The Surly Psychic. In the sketches, she continues to give fake psychic readings to unsuspecting people on the street.
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