Josephine Starte

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Josephine Starte is a British-Australian actor, writer and improviser. Winner of the NoBudge Best Actress award, Josephine’s performances have been called `very cool’ by showrunner Joey Soloway (Transparent), `very funny’ and ‘deliciously random’ by Time Out.

Recent credits include a lead role in upcoming Australian satirical feature film Moonrise Over Knights Hill, and being one half of the inaugural female cast of the Oliver nominated Potted Potter, with transfers to Canada and the United States.

As a writer, Josephine recently finished filming her short film I Don’t Live Here, produced by the Loom Pictures, Pinzutu Films and the BFI. Starring herself, acclaimed clown Tom Penn and Geraldine James OBE, this darkly comic psychological horror is now in development as a feature with the same creative team.

Her play Killing It, directed by RSC Fellow Lily McLeish for Vault Festival, received all 4 and 5 star reviews. A Younger Theatre called it ‘Breathtaking, beautiful theatre … Starte shines in this role, exhibiting both acerbic wit and impressive depth – truly one to watch’. A blend of stand-up comedy and surreal family tragedy, it was also longlisted for The Bruntwood Prize at Manchester Royal Exchange.

She is a BAFTA Connect member (writing cohort) and previous Drama Fellow at the Alpine Fellowship, Venice, selected by showrunner Mike Lesslie (The Hunger Games, Dope Girls). Lesslie called a separate script of hers ‘one of the best scripts I’ve read this year’. The late esteemed poet John Burnside (winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Poetry Prize) called her play Hornet ‘wonderful…painful and funny at once’. Her writing for screen has been shortlisted for UKTV WritersSlam, Screen Australia’s ROAR Award and BBC Voices.

A lover of improv on film and on stage, Josephine co-created the cult web-series Special Guests with comic Jeffrey Khan and director Toby Parker Rees (On The Edge, Channel 4), and is one third of GUM Improv, nominated for Best Comedy Group by Phoenix Remix.