Mae Martin Canadian comedian, actor and screenwriter Date of Birth: 02.05.1987 Country: Canada

1. Early Life and Comedy Beginnings
2. Comedy Career in Canada
3. Transition to the UK Comedy Scene
4. "Feel Good" and Recent Projects
5. Personal Life and Identity

Early Life and Comedy Beginnings

Mae Martin was born on May 2, 1987, in Toronto, Canada, to Wendy Martin, a Canadian author and teacher, and James Chatto, a former actor and musician who became an English food writer. Martin has an older brother. They were christened in a village on the Greek island of Corfu, where their family lived for several years. James and Wendy were open-minded and bohemian, former hippies with a love of comedy. The family home was filled with records of classic British and American comedic works.

Martin attended an all-girls school in Toronto. They saw their first comedy show at age 11, began performing with a comedy troupe called "The Young and the Useless" at age 13, and dropped out of school to pursue comedy full-time at age 15.

Comedy Career in Canada

Martin's comedy career began in Canada at age 13 as part of the three-person comedy troupe "The Young and the Useless." They worked at the Second City comedy club, both as box office staff and as performers. At age 16, Martin became the youngest-ever nominee for the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award. Martin's work in Canada included writing for the sketch comedy series "Baroness von Sketch Show," for which they won two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Writing in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Series.

Transition to the UK Comedy Scene

In 2011, Martin relocated to London to break into the British comedy scene. Their 2015 Edinburgh Fringe show, "Mae Martin: Us," led to an accompanying BBC Radio 4 series, "Mae Martin's Guide to 21st Century Sexuality." Martin appeared on the British TV and radio show "The Now Show" and co-hosted the podcast "GrownUpLand." In 2017, they debuted their Edinburgh show "Dope," about addiction in all its forms, which was shortlisted for the Edinburgh Comedy Award. The show explored both recreational drugs and dopamine, the brain chemical linked to addictive behaviors, and was based on the work of Dr. Gabor Maté and other researchers. "Dope" was adapted into a half-hour Netflix comedy special released in January 2019 as part of the "Comedians of the World" collection.

"Feel Good" and Recent Projects

In 2019, Martin released a book for young people titled "Can Everyone Please Calm Down? A Guide to 21st Century Sexuality." Martin co-created, wrote, and starred in the 2020 Channel 4 comedy series "Feel Good," alongside longtime writing partner Joe Hampson. A second season was released in 2021. The show explores relationships, queerness, addiction, and privilege. Lucy Mangan of The Guardian praised the series in her review as "impeccably written" and "properly funny."

In 2022, they appeared in "LOL: Last One Laughing Canada." Later that year, they made a recurring appearance on the HBO Max series "The Flight Attendant" as Grace St. James. In 2023, Martin appeared as a contestant and won series 15 of the Channel 4 comedy game show "Taskmaster."

Personal Life and Identity

Martin describes childhood obsessions with Bette Midler, The Kids in the Hall, Pee-wee Herman, and The Rocky Horror Show, which they now recognize as signs of their predisposition to addiction. At age 11, Martin first attended a comedy club and fell in love with stand-up. Martin and two friends became known as "The Fan Girls" for attending Second City's "Maximus Family Circus" (an improvisational troupe's show) over 160 times a year.

At age 14, Martin began drinking and taking drugs. By age 15, Martin dropped out of school to work full-time at the Second City comedy club. At age 16, they were kicked out of their home by their parents and moved in with comedian friends in their 20s and 30s. Abusive relationships were normalized in the night scene: Martin says that "if you put a teenage girl in any industry like that, people are gonna take advantage of her." Martin eventually went to rehab.

Martin publicly came out as non-binary in 2021. They use they/them pronouns. They have dated both men and women, stating in April 2021 that they are bisexual after previously being resistant to labeling their sexuality. In June 2021, Martin described themselves as a "queer weirdo." Martin has shared that they had a major surgery in late 2021.