Jennifer Saunders was born July 6th 1958 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, UK. She attended Central School of Speech and Drama where she met her comedy partner Dawn French. Like many of the early 80s groundbreaking "alternative" comedians she began her career as comedienne/actress/writer with Dawn French at "The Comedy Store" in London, where she met fellow comedians Adrian Edmondson (later her husband), Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle and Peter Richardson, who later opened his own club, "The Comic Strip", where these comedians quickly formed a regular format.

The Comic Strip team were transferred to television screens with great success as they all starred alongside each other in The Comic Strip Presents... (1982). After The Comic Strip she starred in a few episodes of The Young Ones (1982), Girls on Top (1985) and Happy Families (1985). Afterwards she and Dawn French wrote a TV show of their own, French and Saunders (1987), which was an immense success due to the double act's genius writing, brilliant acting performances and hilarious spoofs of world famous blockbusters and bands.

It was in one of the episodes of "French and Saunders" that the audience had the pleasure of watching a sketch about an uptight daughter and a crazy, neurotic mother that became a comedy classic sitcom. When the BBC next asked Saunders to write something, she just couldn't come up with any ideas, so she decided to expand on that sketch, making it more outrageous and therefore funnier - Absolutely Fabulous (1992) was born.

Adrian Edmondson (11 May 1985 - present) ( 3 children)

Trivia

The comedy partner of Dawn French
Has three daughters, Ella Edmondson, Beattie Edmondson and Freya Edmondson, with Adrian Edmondson.
The name of her character, Edina Monsoon, on Absolutely Fabulous (1992) is a play on the name "Eddie Monsoon," which in turn is a play on her husband, Adrian Edmondson's surname that he has used as a character name in comedy performances.
Can do a very accurate impression of Irish actress Amanda Burton and used it in "Witless Silence", a French and Saunders (1987) spoof of Burton's TV series Silent Witness (1996).
Was revealed that she and partner Dawn French declined Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) honors "for services to comedy drama" in 2001. [December 2003]
Won a People's Choice Award for "Favorite Movie Villain" for playing the wicked Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2 (2004) (January 2005)
The Eurythmics' songs "Jennifer", (from the album "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This"), and "Adrian" (from the album "Be Yourself Tonight") are dedicated to her and her husband.
Presented Seth Lakeman with the Folk Singer Of The Year award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2007.
Got a voice coach to help her sing for the Fairy Godmother's opening number in Shrek 2 (2004).
Because she was in the midst of filming another season of Absolutely Fabulous (1992), her vocal performance in Shrek 2 (2004) was recorded in England.
Performed all her own singing in Shrek 2 (2004).

When I was a child, a lot of my time was spent in Scotland because my mother's Scottish, and we used to go up to Ayrshire and visit relations in a place called Dalry.
We were watching the first series recently, and it has a charm, a kind of amateur charm. At that point we didn't involve ourselves technically at all - we just messed about and told our jokes - and it looks a bit like that.
We had this party in New York, and there were a lot of gay men there dressed up as the characters. I showed up just looking like myself, but it was a real case of shame. They looked so fantastic. We could never quite live up to it.
They have become part of us in that if we get dressed up as them, we don't actually have to have a script. You can just become them. You just become nervy.
The reason they keep it so tight is that no one liked them, so that without each other, actually, they couldn't exist. They support each other. They support their flaws and everything else.
My daughters related to something in the Spice Girls that made them feel better about being female. They truly started to believe girls could do anything. They could be fat, thin, anything they wanted to be.
Men would find it much harder because men have such odd personal relationships with each other. They don't really emotionally connect, whereas women do. I think women become very close.