Dawn O’Porter

After getting a 2:1 in Acting at Sir Paul McCartney’s Drama school, LIPA, Dawn started out behind the camera working in production, before stepping in front of it for her debut comedy moment in C4’s Balls of Steel.

That ‘fearless’ attitude then saw her starve down to a Hollywood Size Zero for her first BBC 3 documentary ‘Super Slim Me’. This was a storming success, leading onto the ‘Dawn Goes... series’ where she went naked, lesbian and dating.

Dawn was then snapped up by Channel 4 to make ‘Extreme Wife’ a series of immersive documentaries about different kinds of wives all over the world. She was a Geisha in Japan, a mail order bride in Ukraine, a free lover in Germany and a Polygamist in America.

Other TV highlights for Dawn include a stint on ‘How to Look Good Naked’, A documentary about Dirty Dancing for C5 (yes, she did the lift) and the beautiful C4 series ‘This Old Thing’ where she celebrated her love for vintage clothing and had her contributors stepping into their confidence to wear the most brilliant second-hand clothes.

Dawn is a bestselling author of nine books. Her most famous fiction being Paper Aeroplanes, The Cows, So Lucky, Cat Lady and Honeybee.

Her non-fiction pandemic diary ‘Life in Pieces’ was also a bestseller and described by Louis Theroux as ‘Very funny and honest’.

There are more books than that, and two currently being written.

Dawn is a self-proclaimed ‘writing machine’. She uses a typewriter and wears kaftans to get in the zone. All whilst sitting alongside her stuffed Siamese cat called Lilu. Yes, Lilu was her actual cat. 2020 was a weird year.

Dawn has been a monthly columnist for Company Magazine, Glamour Magazine and weekly for Stylist. She has written for many UK publications over the years, has a successful newsletter called ‘The O’Portal’ and a whopping 511k follows on Instagram. She is also Co-Founder of the charity Choose Love and the Flackstock Festival.

Having lived in Los Angeles for sixteen years, she moved back recently with her husband Chris, two boys Art and Valentine, and a menagerie of animals – two dogs, two cats and a tortoise called Sandwich.

Dawn loves food and is a very passionate cook. Other interests are wellness, aging gracefully and her constant mission to persuade Chris that they need another cat. Or goats. Maybe a pig.

Dawn loves potatoes and won’t share her chips with you. So don’t even ask.

Did we mention cats?