Our guest this week is the very funny and very thought-provoking Lucy Davis! Lucy is best known as Dawn from the British TV show The Office, she then went on to star in movies like Shaun of The Dead,  Wonder Woman and now lives in LA, having broken America and starring in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. We talked about pivotal moments in Lucy's life which has involved some setbacks including a kidney transplant and recovering from an eating disorder. In our conversation, we talk about...

Our very special guest this week is Ruby Bridges who changed the world forever at just six years old. In 1960 Ruby was the first black child to go to an integrated school in the American South. This moment has become an iconic symbol of the civil rights movement and changed her life forever. Books have been written about her, movies made about her and the artist Norman Rockwell painted the moment of her first day at school - a work of art that Barack Obama moved into the White House during...

Welcome to the second series of The Making of... from The Female Lead Our guest today is the award-winning poet Hollie McNish!Hollie was UK Slam Poetry Champion in 2009 and went on to win the prestigious Ted Hughes Award for poetry in 2016. She's released 4 books of poetry and her fifth collection called Slug is out this month.Hollie spoke about everything from childbirth to the magic of words and she even performed one of our favourite poems.The Making Of is hosted by Bea Appleby. The...

Welcome to the second series of The Making of... from The Female Lead Our guest this week is the actor Rebecca Root!Rebecca came to fame in 2015 starring in the groundbreaking BBC TV Series Boy Meets Girl, where she was the first transgender actor to be cast in a lead transgender role in a mainstream sitcom. Since then Rebecca has worked on a range of film and television shows including the smash hit The Queen's Gambit and The Danish Girl.We talked about the huge changes in her life, the...

Welcome to the second series of The Making of... from The Female Lead Our guest this week is the actor, writer and disability campaigner Samantha Renke!Samantha came to fame in the groundbreaking Maltesers ad which was one of the first representations on TV of a wheelchair user as being funny and sexy. This moment was a turning point for Samantha's career but also a really painful time due to online trolling which we talked about in our conversation.We also covered ableism, finding...

Welcome to the second series of The Making of... from The Female Lead Our guest this week is Mandu Reid, leader of The Women's Equality Party. Mandu made history as the first Black leader of a national political party in Britain. She was born in Malawi and lived for some time in Swaziland under the last years of apartheid. She's been campaigning for racial and gender equality throughout her life, leading her to The Women's Equality Party. We talked about a lot of meaty subjects like racial...

Welcome to the second series of The Making of... from The Female Lead Our guest this week is the writer and campaigner Bryony Gordon.  As well as her weekly column for the Telegraph, Bryony is a prolific author - writing six books in the last seven years. These memoirs are funny and painful explorations of mental health and addiction, and her most recent book No Such Thing as Normal is a practical guide for those struggling to cope Bryony is a passionate mental health campaigner and in 2016...

Welcome to the second series of The Making of... from The Female Lead Our guest this week is the fastest British Woman in history! It’s Dina Asher Smith Dina’s career as a sprinter has been a series of firsts - she is the first British woman to win a major global sprint title. In 2018, she won three gold medals at the European championships making her the first British woman to ever win a treble at a major event.   As a young athlete she was the world's fastest teenager ever over 60m and...

Welcome to the final episode of this series of The Making Of... from The Female Lead.  Our guest this week is the comedian, actor, writer and national treasure Mel Giedroyc! This was our first ever conversation with Mel, but it feels like talking to an old friend because she is so relaxed and funny and loves a chat. She is also packed full of wisdom - just as a national treasure should be. Best known as part of the Mel and Sue double act, she started out doing live sketch comedy, then...

Welcome to the 7th episode of The Making Of... from The Female Lead.  Our guest this week is the classicist, writer, broadcaster and troll fighter Dame Mary Beard!  Mary is the best-known classicist working in Britain today and has written many popular books on the ancient world including the award-winning Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town.  She has also presented highly-acclaimed BBC documentaries and is a regular broadcaster and media commentator. She is classics editor of the Times...

Welcome to the 6th episode of The Making Of... from The Female Lead.  Our guest this week is the legendary make-up artist, entrepreneur and founder of the iconic Bobbi Brown cosmetics. It’s the one and only Bobbi Brown herself! Bobbi started out as a make-up artist and then, through a chance conversation with a chemist, created a few simple lipsticks that evolved into a global beauty empire. Since leaving her billion-dollar company in 2016, she has launched Beauty Evolution and finished her...

Welcome to the fifth episode of The Making Of... from The Female Lead.  Our guest this week is the FGM campaigner and author, Nimco Ali. As a survivor of FGM herself, for over 10 years Nimco has been fighting to end this practice throughout the world. She is CEO of the Five Foundation and she has just been appointed as an independent government adviser tackling violence against women and girls. In 2019 she also published her first book What We’re Told Not To Talk About (But We’re Going To...

Welcome to the fourth episode of The Making Of... from The Female Lead.  Our guest this week is the Chief International Anchor of CNN, Christiane Amanpour. To say that Christiane is a powerhouse is an understatement - she has covered every major war zone, interviewed the world’s most powerful leaders and asked hundreds of difficult questions in the toughest situations. We asked Christiane to choose six key life moments that have made her who she is today and her list is as formidable as you...

Welcome to the third episode of The Making Of from The Female Lead. Our guest this week is the journalist and author Yomi Adegoke. We love Yomi’s work and were so excited to interview her and capture her infectious energy, honesty and humour.  As always, she chose six key life moments that have made her who she is today. The list she came up with is a great story which starts with her deciding not to care about looks at the age of 15 and comes full circle to giving up on hair - listen and...

Welcome to the second episode of The Making Of from The Female Lead. Our guest this week is the broadcaster, journalist and author Emma Barnett. We asked her to choose six key life moments that have made her who she is today. The list she came up with is full of surprises, and all delivered in her wonderful straight-talking style. Our conversation covered a lot of ground - Emma’s naughty school days, her burning ambition, struggles with fertility, dealing with IVF and the agony of...

Welcome to the first ever episode of The Making Of from The Female Lead! Our guest this week is the journalist, author and legend Caitlin Moran. We asked her to choose six key life moments that have made her who she is today and she chose a fantastic list - some are funny, some are sad, but all of them hopeful and inspiring.

The Making Of is a new podcast from The Female Lead (http://thefemalelead.com) , launching next Wednesday 23rd September 2020 (with a new episode dropping weekly). In this 8-part series, The Female Lead's, Bea Appleby interviews brilliant women about the moments that have made them. Each woman has chosen 6 key moments - some are fateful, some decisive, some just accidental, but all show just how rambling our routes to success and happiness can be. We laughed, we cried and we generally got to...