Ginger
Color plate from Köhler's Medicinal Plants
Scientific classification </small>
Kingdom:	Plantae
clade:	Angiosperms
clade:	Monocots
clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Zingiberales
Family:	Zingiberaceae
Genus:	Zingiber
Species:	Z. officinale
Binomial name
Zingiber officinale Roscoe 1807[1]

Ginger or ginger root is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family (Zingiberaceae). Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal.

Ginger cultivation began in South Asia and has since spread to East Africa and the Caribbean.^[2]

Etymology[link]

The English name ginger comes from French: gingembre, Old English: gingifere, Medieval Latin: ginginer, Greek: zingiberis (ζιγγίβερις). Ultimately the origin is from Tamil: inji ver (இஞ்சி வேர்). The botanical term for root in Tamil is ver (வேர்), hence inji root or inji ver.^[3]

Horticulture[link]

Ginger produces clusters of white and pink flower buds that bloom into yellow flowers. Because of its aesthetic appeal and the adaptation of the plant to warm climates, ginger is often used as landscaping around subtropical homes. It is a perennial reed-like plant with annual leafy stems, about a meter (3 to 4 feet) tall.

Traditionally, the root is gathered when the stalk withers; it is immediately scalded, or washed and scraped, to kill it and prevent sprouting.

Uses[link]

Gari (ginger)

Ginger produces a hot, fragrant kitchen spice.^[4] Young ginger rhizomes are juicy and fleshy with a very mild taste. They are often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or just cooked as an ingredient in many dishes. They can also be steeped in boiling water to make ginger tea, to which honey is often added; sliced orange or lemon fruit may also be added. Ginger can also be made into candy.

Mature ginger roots are fibrous and nearly dry. The juice from old ginger roots is extremely potent^[5] and is often used as a spice in Indian recipes, and is a quintessential ingredient of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and many South Asian cuisines for flavoring dishes such as seafood or goat meat and vegetarian cuisine.

Ginger acts as a useful food preservative.^[6]

Fresh ginger can be substituted for ground ginger at a ratio of 6 to 1, although the flavors of fresh and dried ginger are somewhat different. Powdered dry ginger root is typically used as a flavoring for recipes such as gingerbread, cookies, crackers and cakes, ginger ale, and ginger beer.

Candied ginger is the root cooked in sugar until soft, and is a type of confectionery.

Fresh ginger may be peeled before eating. For longer-term storage, the ginger can be placed in a plastic bag and refrigerated or frozen.

Regional use[link]

Look up ginger in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In Western cuisine, ginger is traditionally used mainly in sweet foods such as ginger ale, gingerbread, ginger snaps, parkin, ginger biscuits and speculaas. A ginger-flavored liqueur called Canton is produced in Jarnac, France. Green ginger wine is a ginger-flavored wine produced in the United Kingdom, traditionally sold in a green glass bottle. Ginger is also used as a spice added to hot coffee and tea.

Ginger field

Fresh ginger rhizome.

India and Pakistan, ginger is called adrak in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, aad in Maithili, aadi in Bhojpuri, aada in Bengali, Adu in Gujarati, hashi shunti (ಹಸಿ ಶುಂಟಿ) in the Kannada, allam (అల్లం) in Telugu, inji (இஞ்சி) in Tamil and Malayalam, inguru (ඉඟුරු) in Sinhalese, alay in Marathi, and aduwa(अदुवा ) in Nepali. Fresh ginger is one of the main spices used for making pulse and lentil curries and other vegetable preparations. Fresh, as well as dried, ginger is used to spice tea and coffee, especially in winter. Ginger powder is also used in certain food preparations, particularly for pregnant or nursing women, the most popular one being katlu which is a mixture of gum resin, ghee, nuts, and sugar. Ginger is also consumed in candied and pickled form. In Bangladesh, ginger is finely chopped or ground into a paste to use as a base for chicken and meat dishes alongside shallot and garlic.

In Burma, ginger is called gyin. It is widely used in cooking and as a main ingredient in traditional medicines. It is also consumed as a salad dish called gyin-thot, which consists of shredded ginger preserved in oil, and a variety of nuts and seeds. In Indonesia, a beverage called wedang jahe is made from ginger and palm sugar. Indonesians also use ground ginger root, called jahe, as a common ingredient in local recipes. In Malaysia, ginger is called halia and used in many kinds of dishes, especially a soup. In the Philippines it is brewed into a tea called salabat. In Vietnam, the fresh leaves, finely chopped, can also be added to shrimp-and-yam soup (canh khoai mỡ) as a top garnish and spice to add a much subtler flavor of ginger than the chopped root.

In China, sliced or whole ginger root is often paired with savory dishes such as fish, and chopped ginger root is commonly paired with meat, when it is cooked. However, candied ginger is sometimes a component of Chinese candy boxes, and a herbal tea can also be prepared from ginger.

In Japan, ginger is pickled to make beni shoga and gari or grated and used raw on tofu or noodles. It is also made into a candy called shoga no sato zuke. In the traditional Korean kimchi, ginger is finely minced and added to the ingredients of the spicy paste just before the fermenting process.

In the Caribbean, ginger is a popular spice for cooking, and making drinks such as sorrel, a seasonal drink made during the Christmas season. Jamaicans make ginger beer both as a carbonated beverage and also fresh in their homes. Ginger tea is often made from fresh ginger, as well as the famous regional specialty Jamaican ginger cake.

Two varieties of ginger as sold in Haikou, Hainan, China

On the island of Corfu, Greece, a traditional drink called τσιτσιμπύρα (tsitsibira), a type of ginger beer, is made. The people of Corfu and the rest of the Ionian islands adopted the drink from the British, during the period of the United States of the Ionian Islands.

In Arabic, ginger is called zanjabil, and in some parts of the Middle East, ginger powder is used as a spice for coffee and for milk, as well. In Somaliland, ginger is called sinjibil, and is served in coffee shops in Egypt. In the Ivory Coast, ginger is ground and mixed with orange, pineapple and lemon to produce a juice called nyamanku. Ginger powder is used in hawaij, a spice mixture used mostly by Yemenite Jews for soups and coffee.

Ginger tea[link]

A glass of ginger tea

Ginger tea is a beverage in many countries, made from ginger root. In China, the tea is made by boiling peeled and sliced ginger to which brown sugar is often added. Sliced orange or lemon fruit may also be added to give a flavor. In Korean cuisine, ginger tea is called saenggang cha (생강차). It can be made either by boiling the ginger or by mixing hot water and preserved sweetened ginger. For the latter, sliced ginger root is stored with honey for a few weeks like jam.^[7] In Japanese cuisine it is called shōgayu (生姜湯).^[8] In Philippine cuisine it is called salabat and served in the relatively cold month of December. From its main ingredient ginger tea derives a flavor that is spicy and stimulating.^[9]

Preliminary research[link]

Preliminary research indicates that nine compounds found in ginger may bind to human serotonin receptors which may influence gastrointestinal function.^[10]

In limited studies, ginger was found to be more effective than placebo for treating nausea caused by seasickness, morning sickness and chemotherapy,^{[11][12][13][14]} although ginger was not found superior to placebo for pre-emptively treating post-operative nausea. Other preliminary studies showed that ginger may affect arthritis pain or have blood thinning and cholesterol lowering properties, but these effects remain unconfirmed.^[15]

Advanced glycation end-products are possibly associated in the development of diabetic cataract for which ginger was effective in preliminary studies, apparently by acting through antiglycating mechanisms.^[16][17][18]

Zingerone may have activity against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in enterotoxin-induced diarrhea.^[11][19]

Chemistry[link]

Ginger section

The characteristic odor and flavor of ginger is caused by a mixture of zingerone, shogaols and gingerols, volatile oils that compose one to three percent of the weight of fresh ginger. In laboratory animals, the gingerols increase the motility of the gastrointestinal tract and have analgesic, sedative, antipyretic and antibacterial properties.^[20] Ginger oil has been shown to prevent skin cancer in mice^[21] and a study at the University of Michigan demonstrated that gingerols can kill ovarian cancer cells.^[22][23][24] [6]-gingerol (1-[4'-hydroxy-3'-methoxyphenyl]-5-hydroxy-3-decanone) is the major pungent principle of ginger. The chemopreventive potentials of [6]-gingerol present a promising future alternative to expensive and toxic therapeutic agents.^[25]

Ginger contains up to three percent of a fragrant essential oil whose main constituents are sesquiterpenoids, with (-)-zingiberene as the main component. Smaller amounts of other sesquiterpenoids (β-sesquiphellandrene, bisabolene and farnesene) and a small monoterpenoid fraction (β-phelladrene, cineol, and citral) have also been identified.

The pungent taste of ginger is due to nonvolatile phenylpropanoid-derived compounds, particularly gingerols and shogaols, which form from gingerols when ginger is dried or cooked. Zingerone is also produced from gingerols during this process; this compound is less pungent and has a spicy-sweet aroma.^[26] Ginger is also a minor chemical irritant, and because of this was used as a horse suppository by pre-World War I mounted regiments for feaguing.

Ginger has a sialagogue action, stimulating the production of saliva, which makes swallowing easier.^{[citation needed]}

Folk medicine[link]

A packet of ginger powder from the Philippines used in brewing salabat (ginger tea).

Ginger house rum, Madagascar

The traditional medical form of ginger historically was called Jamaica ginger; it was classified as a stimulant and carminative and used frequently for dyspepsia, gastroparesis, slow motility symptoms, constipation, and colic. It was also frequently employed to disguise the taste of medicines.^[27]

Some studies indicate ginger may provide short-term relief of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting.^{[citation needed]} Studies are inconclusive about effects for other forms of nausea or in treating pain from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, or joint and muscle injury. Side effects, mostly associated with powdered ginger, are gas, bloating, heartburn, and nausea.^[28]

Tea brewed from ginger is a common folk remedy for colds. Ginger ale and ginger beer are also drunk as stomach settlers in countries where the beverages are made.

• In Burma, ginger and a local sweetener made from palm tree juice (htan nyat) are boiled together and taken to prevent the flu.
• In China, ginger is included in several traditional preparations. A drink made with sliced ginger cooked in water with brown sugar or a cola is used as a folk medicine for the common cold.^[29] "Ginger eggs" (scrambled eggs with finely diced ginger root) is a common home remedy for coughing.^{[citation needed]} The Chinese also make a kind of dried ginger candy that is fermented in plum juice and sugared, which is also commonly consumed to suppress coughing. Ginger has also been historically used to treat inflammation, which several scientific studies support, though one arthritis trial showed ginger to be no better than a placebo or ibuprofen for treatment of osteoarthritis.^[15]
• In Congo, ginger is crushed and mixed with mango tree sap to make tangawisi juice, which is considered a panacea.
• In India, ginger is applied as a paste to the temples to relieve headache, and consumed when suffering from the common cold. Ginger with lemon and black salt is also used for nausea.
• In Indonesia, ginger (jahe in Indonesian) is used as a herbal preparation to reduce fatigue, reducing "winds" in the blood, prevent and cure rheumatism and control poor dietary habits.
• In Nepal, ginger is called aduwa, अदुवा and is widely grown and used throughout the country as a spice for vegetables, used medically to treat cold and also sometimes used to flavor tea.
• In the Philippines, ginger is known as luya and is used as a throat lozenge in traditional medicine to relieve sore throat. It is also brewed into a tea known as salabat.^[30][31]
• In the United States, ginger is used to prevent motion and morning sickness. It is recognized as safe by the Food and Drug Administration and is sold as an unregulated dietary supplement. Ginger water was also used to avoid heat cramps in the United States.
• In Peru, ginger is sliced in hot water as an infusion for stomach aches as infusión de Kión.
• In Japan it is purported to aid blood circulation.^[32] Scientific studies investigating these effects have been inconclusive.^[28]

Nutritional information[link]

100g of Ginger contains the following nutritional information according to the USDA:^[33]

• Calories : 80
• Fat: 0.75
• Carbohydrates: 17.77
• Fibers: 2
• Protein: 1.82
• Cholesterol: 0

Safety[link]

Ginger is on the FDA's "generally recognized as safe" list, though it does interact with some medications, including warfarin. Ginger is contraindicated in people suffering from gallstones, as it promotes the production of bile.^[27]

An acute overdose of ginger is usually in excess of about 2 grams of ginger per kilogram of body mass,^[34] dependent on level of ginger tolerance, and can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called ginger intoxication or colloquially the "ginger gitters".

Allergic reactions to ginger generally result in a rash, and although generally recognized as safe, ginger can cause heartburn, bloating, gas, belching and nausea, particularly if taken in powdered form. Unchewed fresh ginger may result in intestinal blockage, and individuals who have had ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease or blocked intestines may react badly to large quantities of fresh ginger.^[35] Ginger can also adversely affect individuals with gallstones.^[15][35] There are also suggestions that ginger may affect blood pressure, clotting, and heart rhythms.^[35]

Products in Taiwan made from Hebo Natural Products Limited (禾博天然產物有限公司) of China contained ginger contaminated with DIBP, some 80,000 nutritional supplement capsules made with imported ginger powder were seized by the Public Health Department of Taiwan in June 2011.^[36]

Similar ingredients[link]

Myoga (Zingiber mioga Roscoe) appears in Japanese cuisine; the flower buds are the part eaten.

Another plant in the Zingiberaceae family, galangal, is used for similar purposes as ginger in Thai cuisine. Galangal is also called Thai ginger. Also referred to as galangal, fingerroot (Boesenbergia rotunda), or Chinese ginger or the Thai krachai, is used in cooking and medicine.

A dicotyledonous native species of eastern North America, Asarum canadense, is also known as "wild ginger", and its root has similar aromatic properties, but it is not related to true ginger. The plant also contains aristolochic acid, a carcinogenic compound.^{[citation needed]}

Production[link]

Top ten ginger producers – 11 June 2008
Country	Production (tonnes)
India	380,100
China	331,393
Indonesia	192,500
Nepal	174,268
Thailand	170,125
Nigeria	152,106
Bangladesh	72,608
Japan	52,000
Philippines	27,415
Cameroon	12,000
World	1,615,974
Source: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Division

From 1585, Jamaican ginger was the first oriental spice to be grown in the New World and imported back to Europe.^[37] India, with over 30% of the global share, now leads in global production of ginger, replacing China, which has slipped to the second position (~20.5%), followed by Indonesia (~12.7%), Nepal (~11.5%) and Thailand (~10%).

See also[link]

• Bu Zhong Yi Qi Wan – contains ginger material
• Kaempferia galanga
• Xiao Yao Wan – contains ginger material
• Figging

References[link]

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 edition of The Grocer's Encyclopedia.

External links[link]

Look up ginger in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ginger

Wikispecies has information related to: Zingiber officinale

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Ginger

• Zingiber officinale List of Chemicals (Dr. Duke's)

Ginger Rogers
Born	Virginia Katherine McMath (1911-07-16)July 16, 1911 Independence, Missouri
Died	April 25, 1995(1995-04-25) (aged 83) Rancho Mirage, California
Occupation	Actress, singer, artist, and dancer
Years active	1929–1987
Spouse	Jack Pepper (m.1929–1931; divorced) Lew Ayres (m.1934–1941; divorced) Jack Briggs (m.1943–1949; divorced) Jacques Bergerac (m.1953–1957; divorced) William Marshall (m.1961–1969; divorced)

Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century.

During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and was best known as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. She achieved great success on her own in a variety of film roles and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940). She ranks #14 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of actress screen legends.

Early life[link]

Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, the only child of William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Lela Emogene (née Owens; 1891–1977).^[1] Ginger's parents separated soon after her birth, and she and her mother went to live with her grandparents, Walter and Saphrona (née Ball) Owens, in nearby Kansas City. Rogers' parents fought over her custody. After her mother denied him visitation, her father reportedly absconded with his daughter twice. After her parents divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood. Rogers was to remain close to her grandfather (much later, when she was a star in 1939, she bought him a home at 5115 Greenbush Avenue in Sherman Oaks, California so that he could be close to her while she was filming at the studios).^{[citation needed]}

One of Rogers' young cousins, Helen, had a hard time pronouncing "Virginia", shortening it to "Ginga"; the nickname stuck. When "Ginga" was nine years old, her mother remarried, to John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the surname Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth, Texas. Her mother became a theater critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record. She attended but did not graduate from Fort Worth's Central High School. As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a schoolteacher, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her early exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along with the performers on stage.^{[citation needed]}

Vaudeville and Broadway[link]

Rogers' entertainment career was born one night when the traveling vaudeville act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. She then entered and won a Charleston dance contest which allowed her to tour for six months, at one point in 1926 performing at an 18-month-old theater called The Craterian in Medford, Oregon. This theater honored her many years later by changing its name to the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.^[2]

At 17, Rogers married Jack Culpepper, a singer/dancer/comedian/recording artist of the day who worked under the name Jack Pepper (according to Ginger's autobiography, she knew Culpepper when she was a child, as her cousin's boyfriend). They formed a short-lived vaudeville double act known as "Ginger and Pepper". The marriage was over within months, and she went back to touring with her mother. When the tour got to New York City, she stayed, getting radio singing jobs and then her Broadway theater debut in a musical called Top Speed, which opened on Christmas Day, 1929.

Within two weeks of opening in Top Speed, Rogers was chosen to star on Broadway in Girl Crazy by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, the musical play widely considered to have made stars of both her and Ethel Merman. Fred Astaire was hired to help the dancers with their choreography. Her appearance in Girl Crazy made her an overnight star at the age of 19. In 1930, she was signed by Paramount Pictures to a seven-year contract.

Film career[link]

1929–1933[link]

Pre-blonde, early career portrait

Rogers' first movie roles were in a trio of short films made in 1929—Night in the Dormitory, A Day of a Man of Affairs, and Campus Sweethearts.

Rogers would soon get herself out of the Paramount contract—under which she had made five feature films at Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens—and move with her mother to Hollywood. When she got to California, she signed a three-picture deal with Pathé Exchange. She made feature films for Warner Bros., Monogram, and Fox in 1932 and was named one of fifteen "WAMPAS Baby Stars". She then made a significant breakthrough as "Anytime Annie" in the Warner Brothers film 42nd Street (1933). She went on to make a series of films with Fox, Warner Bros. ("Gold Diggers of 1933"), Universal, Paramount, and RKO Radio Pictures and, in her second RKO picture, Flying Down to Rio (1933), she worked for the first time with Fred Astaire.

1933–1939: Astaire and Rogers[link]

The announcement of the Astaire-Rogers screen partnership – from the trailer to Flying Down to Rio

Rogers was most famous for her partnership with Fred Astaire. Together, from 1933 to 1939, they made nine musical films at RKO: Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) (The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) was produced later at MGM). They revolutionized the Hollywood musical, introducing dance routines of unprecedented elegance and virtuosity, set to songs specially composed for them by the greatest popular song composers of the day.

Arlene Croce, Hannah Hyam and John Mueller all consider Rogers to have been Astaire's finest dance partner, principally because of her ability to combine dancing skills, natural beauty, and exceptional abilities as a dramatic actress and comedienne, thus truly complementing Astaire, a peerless dancer who sometimes struggled as an actor and was not considered classically handsome. The resulting song and dance partnership enjoyed a unique credibility in the eyes of audiences. Of the 33 partnered dances she performed with Astaire, Croce and Mueller have highlighted the infectious spontaneity of her performances in the comic numbers "I'll Be Hard to Handle" from Roberta (1935), "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936) and "Pick Yourself Up" from Swing Time (1936). They also point to the use Astaire made of her remarkably flexible back in classic romantic dances such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" from Roberta (1935), "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat (1935) and "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from Follow the Fleet (1936). For special praise, they have singled out her performance in "Waltz in Swing Time" from Swing Time (1936), which is generally considered to be the most virtuosic partnered routine ever committed to film by Astaire. She generally avoided solo dance performances: Astaire always included at least one virtuoso solo routine in each film, while Rogers performed only one: "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936).

Although the dance routines were choreographed by Astaire and his collaborator Hermes Pan, both have acknowledged Rogers's input and have also testified to her consummate professionalism, even during periods of intense strain, as she tried to juggle her many other contractual film commitments with the punishing rehearsal schedules of Astaire, who made at most two films in any one year. In 1986, shortly before his death, Astaire remarked, "All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it, but of course they could. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No no, Ginger never cried".^{[citation needed]} John Mueller summed up Rogers's abilities as follows: "Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began...the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable".^{[citation needed]} According to Astaire, when they were first teamed together in Flying Down to Rio, "Ginger had never danced with a partner before. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong."^{[citation needed]} Astaire also had this to say to Raymond Rohauer, curator at the New York Gallery of Modern Art: "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success."^{[citation needed]}

Rogers also introduced some celebrated numbers from the Great American Songbook, songs such as Harry Warren and Al Dubin's "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)" from Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), "Music Makes Me" from Flying Down to Rio (1933), "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee (1934), Irving Berlin's "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936), the Gershwins' "Embraceable You" from Girl Crazy and "They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus)" from Shall We Dance (1937). Furthermore, in song duets with Astaire, she co-introduced Berlin's "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936), Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields's "Pick Yourself Up" and "A Fine Romance" from Swing Time (1936) and the Gershwins' "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from Shall We Dance (1937).

After 1939[link]

Ginger Rogers's feet and hand prints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre

After 15 months apart and with RKO facing bankruptcy, the studio hired Fred and Ginger for another movie called Carefree, but it lost money. Next came The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, but the serious plot and tragic ending resulted in the worst box office receipts of any of their films. This was driven not by diminished popularity, but by the hard 1930s economic reality. The production costs of musicals, always significantly more costly than regular features, continued to increase at a much faster rate than admissions. Everyone agreed it was time to stop.

Both before and immediately after her dancing and acting partnership with Fred Astaire ended, Rogers starred in a number of successful dramas and comedies. Stage Door (1937) demonstrated her dramatic capacity, as the loquacious yet vulnerable girl next door, a tough minded, theatrical hopeful, opposite Katharine Hepburn. In Roxie Hart (1942), based on the same play which served as the template for the later musical Chicago, Ginger played a wise-cracking wife on trial for a murder her husband committed. In the neo-realist Primrose Path (1940), directed by Gregory La Cava, she played a prostitute's daughter trying to avoid the fate of her mother. Further highlights of this period included Tom, Dick, and Harry, a 1941 comedy in which she dreams of marrying three different men; I'll Be Seeing You, with Joseph Cotten; La Cava's 5th Avenue Girl (1939), where she played an out-of-work girl sucked into the lives of a wealthy family; and especially the sharp and highly successful comedies: Bachelor Mother (1939), with David Niven, in which she played Polly Parrish, a shop girl who is falsely thought to have abandoned her baby; and Billy Wilder's first Hollywood feature film: The Major and the Minor (1942), in which she played a woman who masquerades as a 12-year-old to get a cheap train ticket and finds herself obliged to continue the ruse for an extended period. This film featured a performance by Rogers's own real mother, Lela, playing her film mother.

Ginger Rogers in the Oscar-winning, title role of Kitty Foyle

In 1941, Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in 1940's Kitty Foyle. She enjoyed considerable success during the early 1940s, and was RKO's hottest property during this period. Becoming a free agent, she made hugely successful films with other studios in the mid-'40s, including Tender Comrade (1943), Lady in the Dark (1944), and Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), and became the highest-paid performer in Hollywood. However, by the end of the decade, her film career had peaked. Arthur Freed reunited her with Fred Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway in 1949.

Rogers' film career entered a period of gradual decline in the 1950s, as parts for older actresses became more difficult to obtain, but she still scored with some solid movies. She starred in Storm Warning (1950) with Ronald Reagan and Doris Day, the noir, anti Ku Klux Klan film by Warner Brothers, and in Monkey Business (1952) with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe, directed by Howard Hawks. In the same year, she also starred in We're Not Married!, also featuring Marilyn Monroe, and in Dreamboat. She played the female lead in Tight Spot (1955), a mystery thriller, with Edward G. Robinson. After a series of unremarkable films she scored with a great popular success, playing Dolly Levi in the long-running Hello, Dolly! on Broadway in 1965.^{[citation needed]}

With Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe in Monkey Business (1952)

In later life, Rogers remained on good terms with Astaire: she presented him with a special Academy Award in 1950, and they were co-presenters of individual Academy Awards in 1967, during which they elicited a standing ovation when they came on stage in an impromptu dance. In 1969, she had the lead role in another long-running popular production of Mame, from the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the West End of London, arriving for the role on the Liner QE2 from New York. Her docking there occasioned the maximum of pomp and ceremony at Southampton. She became the highest paid performer in the history of the West End up to that time. The production ran for 14 months and featured a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II. The Kennedy Center honored Ginger Rogers in December 1992. This event, which was shown on television, was somewhat marred when Astaire's widow, Robyn Smith, who permitted clips of Astaire dancing with Rogers to be shown for free at the function itself, was unable to come to terms with CBS Television for broadcast rights to the clips (all previous rights holders having donated broadcast rights gratis).^[3]

From the 1950s onwards, Rogers would make occasional appearances on television. In the later years of her career, she made guest appearances in three different series by Aaron Spelling; The Love Boat (1979), Glitter (1984), and Hotel (1987), which would be her final screen appearance as an actress.

Personal life[link]

Rogers was an only child, and maintained a close relationship with her mother throughout her life. Lela Rogers (1891–1977) was a newspaper reporter, scriptwriter, and movie producer. She was also one of the first women to enlist in the Marine Corps, was a founder of the successful "Hollywood Playhouse" for aspiring actors and actresses on the RKO set, and was a founder of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Mother and daughter had an extremely close professional relationship as well. Lela Rogers was credited with many pivotal contributions to her daughter's early successes in New York and in Hollywood, not to mention contract negotiations with RKO.

In her classic 1930s musicals with Astaire, Ginger Rogers, co-billed with him, was paid less than Fred, the creative force behind the dances, who also received 10% of the profits. But she was also paid less than many of the supporting "farceurs" billed beneath her, in spite of her much more central role in the films' great financial success. This was personally grating to her, and had effects upon her relationships at RKO, especially with director Mark Sandrich, whose purported disrespect of Rogers prompted a sharp letter of reprimand from producer Pandro Berman, which she deemed important enough to publish in her autobiography. Rogers fought hard for her contract and salary rights, and for better films and scripts.

Rogers' first marriage was at age 17 to her dancing partner Jack Pepper (real name Edward Jackson Culpepper) on March 29, 1929. They divorced in 1931, having separated soon after the wedding. In 1934 she married actor Lew Ayres (1908–1996). They divorced seven years later. Rogers sued Sylvia of Hollywood for $100K for defamation. Sylvia, Hollywood's fitness guru and radio personality, had claimed that Rogers was on Sylvia's radio show when, in fact, she was not.^[4] In 1943, Rogers married her third husband, Jack Briggs, a Marine. Upon his return from World War II, Briggs showed no interest in continuing his incipient Hollywood career. They divorced in 1949. In 1953 she married Jacques Bergerac, a French actor 16 years her junior, whom she met on a trip to Paris. A lawyer in France, he came to Hollywood with her and became an actor. They divorced in 1957. Her fifth and final husband was director and producer William Marshall. They married in 1961, and divorced in 1971, after his bouts with alcohol, and the financial collapse of their joint film production company in Jamaica.

Rogers was lifelong friends with actresses Lucille Ball and Bette Davis. Rogers starred in one of the earliest films co-directed and co-scripted by a woman, Wanda Tuchock's Finishing School (1934). In 1985, Rogers fulfilled a long-standing wish to direct by directing the musical Babes in Arms off-Broadway in Tarrytown, New York, when she was 74 years old. She appeared with Ball in an episode of Here's Lucy on November 22, 1971, in which Rogers danced the Charleston for the first time in many years. Rogers maintained a close friendship with her cousin, writer/socialite Phyllis Fraser, but was not Rita Hayworth's natural cousin as has been reported. Hayworth's maternal uncle, Vinton Hayworth, was married to Rogers's maternal aunt, Jean Owens.

Rogers was a lifelong conservative and a member of the Republican Party.^[5] Along with her mother, and such contemporaries as Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Barbara Stanwyck, Rogers was a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Hollywood anti-Communist group.

She was raised a Christian Scientist, and remained a lifelong adherent.^[6] She devoted a great deal of time in her autobiography to the importance of her faith throughout her career.

In 1977, Rogers's mother died. Rogers remained at the 4-Rs (Rogers's Rogue River Ranch) until 1990, when she sold the property and moved to nearby Medford, Oregon. Her last public appearance was on March 18, 1995 when she received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award. For many years, Rogers regularly supported, and held in-person presentations, at the Craterian Theater, in Medford, Oregon, where she had performed in 1926 as a vaudevillian. The theater was comprehensively restored in 1997, and posthumously renamed in her honor, as the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.

Death[link]

Rogers would spend winters in Rancho Mirage and summers in Medford. She continued making public appearances (mostly at award shows) until suffering a stroke that left her relying on the use of a wheelchair due to being partially paralyzed. Rogers died at her Rancho Mirage home on April 25, 1995, at the age of 83. An autopsy was performed in compliance with California law that required post-mortem examination on anyone who had not received medical treatment within 40 days of death (despite her stroke, Rogers never saw a doctor or went to a hospital) and concluded that the cause of death was a heart attack.^[7] She was cremated and her ashes interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California, with her mother's remains.

Portrayals of Rogers[link]

No films have been made about Ginger Rogers, possibly because her best-known co-star Fred Astaire stipulated in his will that no film representations of him were ever to be made.

• Likenesses of Astaire and Rogers, apparently painted over from the Cheek to Cheek dance in Top Hat, are in the Lucy in the Skies section of The Beatles film Yellow Submarine (1968).

• Rogers' image is one of many famous women's images of the 1930s and 40s featured on the bedroom wall in the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, a gallery of magazine cuttings pasted on the wall created by Anne and her sister Margot while hiding from the Nazis. When the house became a museum, the gallery the Frank sisters created was preserved under glass. Rogers' image is one of the larger and more prominent, which clearly indicates her global and mass appeal amongst the youth of the time.

• A musical about the life of Rogers, entitled Backwards in High Heels, premiered in Florida in early 2007.^[8][9]

• Rogers was the heroine of a novel, Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak (1942, by Lela E. Rogers), in which "the heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941–1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.^[10]

Filmography[link]

Features[link]

Short subjects[link]

• A Day of a Man of Affairs (1929)
• A Night in a Dormitory (1930)
• Campus Sweethearts (1930)
• Office Blues (1930)
• Hollywood on Parade (1932)
• Screen Snapshots (1932)
• Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 (1933)
• Hollywood Newsreel (1934)
• Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3 (1936)
• Show Business at War (1943)
• Battle Stations (Narrator, 1944)
• Screen Snapshots: The Great Showman (1950)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood's Great Entertainers (1954)

Television[link]

• The DuPont Show with June Allyson, as Kay Neilson in "The Tender Shoot" (October 18, 1959)
• What's My Line? (1954, 1957, 1963)
• The Jack Benny Program (1957)
• The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom (1959)
• Cinderella (1965)
• Here's Lucy (1971)(episode 4.11)
• The Love Boat (1979) (episodes 3.10 and 3.11)
• Glitter (1984) (episode 1.3)
• Hotel (1987) (episode 5.1) (final screen role)

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Fred Astaire: Steps in Time, 1959, multiple reprints.
• Arlene Croce: The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book, Galahad Books 1974, ISBN 0-88365-099-1
• Jocelyn Faris: Ginger Rogers – a Bio-Bibliography, Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1994, ISBN 0-313-29177-2
• Hannah Hyam: Fred and Ginger – The Astaire-Rogers Partnership 1934–1938, Pen Press Publications, Brighton, 2007. ISBN 978-1-905621-96-5
• John Mueller: Astaire Dancing – The Musical Films of Fred Astaire, Knopf 1985, ISBN 0-394-51654-0
• Ginger Rogers: Ginger My Story, New York: Harper Collins, 1991

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ginger Rogers

Dance portal

• Ginger Rogers at the Internet Movie Database
• Ginger Rogers at the TCM Movie Database
• Ginger Rogers at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ginger Rogers – Appreciations
• Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Musical
• Ginger Rogers biography from Reel Classics
• John Mueller's 1991 New York Times review of Ginger: My Story
• Photographs and literature

Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate in 2008
Born	Catherine Ford (1968-05-12) 12 May 1968 (age 44) Bloomsbury, London, England
Residence	Richmond upon Thames, London, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actress, writer, comedienne
Years active	1990–present
Television	The Office Big Train Wild West The Catherine Tate Show Doctor Who
Partner	Twig Clark (until 2011)
Children	Erin Clark (born 2003)

Catherine Tate (born Catherine Ford on 12 May 1968)^[1] is an English actress, writer and comedienne. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTA Awards. Following the success of The Catherine Tate Show, Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of Doctor Who and later reprised her role, becoming the Doctor's companion for the fourth series in 2008.^[2] In 2011, she began a recurring role as Nellie Bertram on The Office.

Early life and education[link]

Tate was born in Bloomsbury and brought up in the Brunswick Centre.^[1] Her mother, Josephine, was a florist,^[3] and Tate has said that the character of Margaret in The Catherine Tate Show, who shrieks at the slightest of disturbances, is based largely on Josephine.^[1]

Tate never knew her father, as he left very early on in her life,^[1] and consequently, she was brought up in a female-dominated environment, being cared for by her mother, grandmother and her godparents.^[3] As a child, Tate suffered from an obsessive-compulsive disorder which centred on word association. For example, Tate was not able to leave a jumper on the floor or it might have brought misfortune to her mother whose name began with the letter "J" like jumper.^[1]

She attended St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School, Macklin Street, Holborn and Notre Dame High School, Southwark, a south London convent secondary school for girls.^[1] By the time Tate was a teenager, she knew she wanted to follow a professional acting career and was subsequently sent to a boys' Roman Catholic school, Salesian College in Battersea at the age of 16. The school had the necessary facilities for drama.^[3] Tate left school without sitting her A-Levels.^[4] She then tried for four years to get a place in the Central School of Speech and Drama (University of London), succeeding on her fourth attempt.^[4] She studied there for three years,^[3][4] and until the age of 26, lived in Holborn and Bloomsbury.^[3] Prior to getting a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Tate went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, but left after a week; "Even at that age, I realised I wasn't Bonnie Langford. It was very competitive", she stated. ^[5]

Career[link]

Beginnings[link]

Tate began her television acting career with roles in serial dramas such as The Bill,^[4] and London's Burning.^[3] Tate started stand-up comedy in 1996,^[6] and has appeared in comedy series such as The Harry Hill Show, Barking and That Peter Kay Thing and a role in Men Behaving Badly.^[7] She played the part of Kate in the unaired pilot episode of sitcom Not Going Out alongside Lee Mack and Tim Vine.^[8] In 1998 she wrote and starred in Barking, a late night sketch show broadcast on Channel 4 and featuring a host of, back then, unknown stars such as David Walliams, Peter Kay and Mackenzie Crook.

Soon after, she became involved with Lee Mack's Perrier Comedy Award-nominated New Bits show at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2000.^[7] In 2001, she returned to the festival with her own sell-out one-woman show,^[6] which was followed by roles in Big Train,^[5] Attention Scum and TVGoHome.^[7] After being spotted at Edinburgh, she was given the role of Angela in the comedy, Wild West, with Dawn French,^[7] who commented "Catherine Tate is far too talented and she must be destroyed."^[5]

Tate has also performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company,^[5] and at the National Theatre.^[4] She acted the role of Smeraldina in a 2000 RSC production of A Servant to Two Masters, and another role in The Way of the World at the National Theatre.^[9]

2004–05[link]

Tate was approached at a post-show party at the Edinburgh Festival by then-BBC controller of comedy Geoffrey Perkins, who encouraged Tate to develop her character ideas, especially to push the boundaries with teenager Lauren Cooper. Undertaking Perkins' advice, after a live show Tate found the audience walking out of the show repeating the character's catchphrase Am I bovvered?^[10]

Produced by Perkins at Tiger Aspect, Tate was given her own programme on BBC Two in 2004, which she co-wrote and starred in with Derren Litten, entitled The Catherine Tate Show, which ran for three series.^[7] Two of the show's well-known characters are teenager Lauren Cooper and Joannie "Nan" Taylor, the cockney grandmother.^[5] Tate's inspiration for the cockney grandmother came from visits to old people's homes when she was at drama college.^[5] Tate won a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Newcomer for her work on the first series of The Catherine Tate Show,^[11] and with the first series becoming a success, in March 2005, Tate made a guest appearance during the BBC's Comic Relief as the character of Lauren from The Catherine Tate Show, alongside boy-band McFly, which gained her further exposure.^[6]

In November 2005, Tate appeared in another charity sketch as part of the BBC's annual Children in Need telethon. The segment was a crossover between EastEnders and The Catherine Tate Show, featuring Eastenders characters Peggy Mitchell, Little Mo Mitchell and Stacey Slater, whilst Tate appeared as Lauren.^[12] Also at that time, she was a guest star at the 77th Royal Variety Performance and appeared again in the guise of Lauren Cooper. During the sketch, Tate looked up at the Royal Box and asked The Queen, "Is one bovvered? Is one's face bovvered?".^[13] She also commented during the sketch that Prince Philip had fallen asleep: "she is bling, but the old fella next to her is asleep!" He then reportedly complained to the show's executive producer, saying he had been insulted.^[1] Tate later won a British Comedy Award for Best British Comedy Actress for her work in the second series of The Catherine Tate Show.^[14] At the end of 2005, she appeared in the BBC television adaptation of Bleak House.^[15]

Tate returned to the stage for the first time since working with the RSC,^[16] to play a role in the 2005 West End revival of Some Girl(s), alongside Sara Powell, Lesley Manville, Saffron Burrows and Friends star David Schwimmer.^[17] In an interview, Tate commented that she could not look Schwimmer in the eye during her time with him, leading to speculation that the pair did not get on.^[4] Tate immediately denied the rumours, explaining that she was joking about her attempts to act "cool" around Schwimmer, whom she described as "a very funny, personable man, and easy to get along with".^[18]

2006–07[link]

The third series of The Catherine Tate Show aired in 2006, going on to win the National Television Award for most popular comedy as voted for by the public,^[19] and Tate's catchphrase "bovvered", used by her character Lauren Cooper, became so influential in popular culture that it was named Word of the Year and was even poised to enter the Oxford English Dictionary.^[20] Tate also played the role of Donna Noble in Doctor Who, a woman in a wedding dress who suddenly appears in the TARDIS at the end of the episode "Doomsday".^[21] The following episode, the Christmas special entitled "The Runaway Bride", saw Tate's character in a major role, where she was temporarily the Doctor's companion.^[21] On her appearance in the series, Tate commented "I'm honoured and delighted to be joining David Tennant aboard the TARDIS. I was holding out for a summer season at Wigan rep but as a summer job, this'll do."^[22]

Tate had roles in three films in 2006, these included, Starter for 10, Sixty Six,^[16] and Scenes of a Sexual Nature.^[1] She later appeared in the films Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution, in which she played the title character,^[16] and Love and Other Disasters.^[23]

In the 2007 television adaptation of the novel, The Bad Mother's Handbook, she played the lead role and co-starred with Anne Reid.^[24]

On 16 March 2007, Tate appeared for a second time on Comic Relief as some of her well-known characters from The Catherine Tate Show. She acted in sketches with David Tennant, Daniel Craig, Lenny Henry and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, who used the show's famous catchphrase, "Am I bovvered?"^[25] Tate also appeared as Joannie "Nan" Taylor in an episode of Deal or No Deal, hosted by Noel Edmonds.^[26]

Tate became a Patron of the performing arts group Theatretrain.

Late 2007–present[link]

Despite speculation that the third series of The Catherine Tate Show would be the last, Tate and the BBC have not ruled out further episodes.^[16] She later filmed a one-off special episode which aired on Christmas Day 2007.^[27] The episode was subject to criticism when 42 viewers complained about the amount of swearing, and accused Tate of bigotry over the depiction of a family from Northern Ireland as terrorists, whose Christmas presents included a balaclava and a pair of knuckle dusters, in reference to the Troubles.^[28] After the complaints were made, an Ofcom report later concluded that the show was not offensive and did not violate broadcasting regulations.^[29][30] An extract from the Ofcom report read "Overall this episode was typical of the Catherine Tate Show and would not have gone beyond the expectations of its usual audience. For those not familiar with the show, the information given at the start was adequate."^[31]

She has also been nominated for four BAFTA Awards for her work on The Catherine Tate Show to date, including Best Comedy Performance.^[32]

Tate returned to Doctor Who in 2008 to reprise the role of Donna Noble as the Doctor's companion throughout the fourth series, which was shown on BBC One starting on 5 April for a 13-week run.^[33] Producer Russell T Davies said, "We are delighted that one of Britain's greatest talents has agreed to join us for the fourth series." Tate added, "I am delighted to be returning to Doctor Who. I had a blast last Christmas and look forward to travelling again through time and space with that nice man from Gallifrey."^[2] At the TV Quick Awards 2008, Tate was voted best actress for her role in Doctor Who.^[34] She returned as Donna Noble in the two-part Doctor Who Christmas special "The End of Time" which was broadcast over Christmas 2009.^[35][36]

In 2008, she starred as Michelle, a 38-year-old promiscuous maths teacher, in David Eldridge's Under The Blue Sky at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, alongside Francesca Annis and Nigel Lindsay. Tate injured her ankle in rehearsal on 15 July. She tackled previews with the aid of a crutch.

On 11 April 2009, 26 December 2009 and 30 January 2010, Tate with David Tennant guest hosted Jonathan Ross' BBC Radio 2 show.

In 2009 she created a one off special spin off to her long running TV sketch show. Although this time the show only starred 'Nan'. In the show, Nan played Scrooge, and was visited by 3 ghosts, one of whom was played by David Tennant. The show was a one off Christmas special.

In 2010, Tate took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.

Tate took part in a series of short comedy films called 'Little Crackers'.^[37]

Tate appeared as Queen Isabelle of Lilliput in the 2010 film adaptation of Gulliver's Travels.

On 18 March 2011, the video for Take That's new single "Happy Now" was debuted on Comic Relief. The video shows comedians Catherine Tate, Alan Carr, James Corden, John Bishop and David Walliams audition to become Take That's ultimate tribute band, Fake That. Filming took place at Ealing Studios on 17 February 2011.^[38]

Tate appeared alongside former co-star David Tennant in the Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing at London's Wyndham's Theatre from 16 May to September 2011.^[39] For her performance – as Beatrice – Catherine won the BroadwayWorld UK Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play.^[40]

In the seventh season finale of The Office, which aired on 19 May 2011, Tate guest starred as Nellie Bertram, a potential replacement for the departing Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell).^[41][42]

On Saturday 17 December 2011, Tate presented the second episode of Channel 4's Laughing at the... series – entitled "Catherine Tate: Laughing at the Noughties" – in which she met Alan Carr, David Walliams, Noel Fielding, Rob Brydon and (her Doctor Who co-star) David Tennant to discuss the comedy highlights of the noughties.^[43]

In January 2012, Tate returned to The Office for its eighth season. She reprised her role as Nellie, who was hired as a "misguided special projects manager".

Personal life[link]

Tate's former partner is stage manager Twig Clark. They have a daughter, Erin (born at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in January 2003), delivered following an emergency caesarean section.^[1] The family had a home in Richmond-upon-Thames, London. The family had both a cat and a dog, the latter of which was given to her by Jonathan Ross. Tate and Clark split before summer 2011. Tate has reportedly dated Take That's Jason Orange.^[44]

Tate is the patron for the Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust, supporting the charity since August 2006. In 2011 she took part in the charity's 2011 Charity Calendar^[45]

Tate suffered from postpartum depression,^[3] from which she only recovered after the filming of the second series of The Catherine Tate Show.^[1] She also suffers from occasional panic attacks.^[1] Regarding her personal outlook, Tate has said "I'm an incredibly negative person, so any form of success is only ever going to be a relief to me and set my default position back to neutral."^[3]

Awards and nominations[link]

All for her work on The Catherine Tate Show unless otherwise stated:

Awards[link]

• 2004: British Comedy Award — Best Comedy Newcomer
• 2006: RTS Television Award — Best Comedy Performance
• 2006: British Comedy Award – Best TV Comedy Actress
• 2007: National Television Awards — Most Popular Comedy Programme
• 2008: TV Quick Award — Best Actress in a Drama Series (for Doctor Who)^[46]

Nominations[link]

• 2004: British Comedy Award – Best TV Comedy Actress
• 2005: British Comedy Award – Best TV Comedy Actress
• 2005: British Comedy Award – People's Choice Award (polled most votes but award not received)^[47][48]
• 2005: International Emmy — Best Performance by an Actress^[49]
• 2005: BAFTA TV Award — Best New Writer
• 2005: BAFTA TV Award – Comedy Programme or Series Award
• 2006: BAFTA TV Award – Best Comedy Performance
• 2007: BAFTA TV Award – Best Comedy Programme
• 2008: Nickelodeon's UK Kids Choice Awards 2008 – Funniest Person
• 2008: Nickelodeon's UK Kids Choice Awards 2008 – Best TV Actress (for Doctor Who)
• 2008: National Television Award – Outstanding Drama Performance (for Doctor Who)
• 2011: BAFTA TV Award – Catherine Tate's Little Cracker

Filmography[link]

Television and film[link]

Theatre[link]