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Suzy Eddie Izzard — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Acting

In 1994, Izzard's West End drama debut as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamet's The Cryptogram with Lindsay Duncan, in the production at London's Comedy Theatre. The success of that role led to a second starring role, in David Beaird's black comedy 900 Oneonta. In 1995, she portrayed the title character in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II.

In 1998, Izzard appeared briefly on stage with Monty Python in The American Film Institute's Tribute to Monty Python (also referred to as Monty Python Live at Aspen). As part of an inside joke, she walked on stage with the five surviving Pythons and was summarily escorted off by Eric Idle and Michael Palin when attempting to participate in a discussion about how the group got together. In July 2014, she appeared on stage with Monty Python during their live show Monty Python Live (Mostly) as the special guest in their "Blackmail" sketch.

Izzard portrayed comedian Lenny Bruce in the 1999 production of Julian Barry's 1971 play Lenny. In 2001, she replaced Clive Owen in Peter Nichols' 1967 play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at the Comedy Theatre. Izzard and Victoria Hamilton repeated their lead roles when the show was brought to Broadway in 2003 in the Roundabout Theatre Company production. The revival received four Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Play, Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress for its stars Izzard and Hamilton in their Broadway debuts, and Best Direction for Laurence Boswell. In June 2010, she replaced James Spader in the role of Jack Lawson in David Mamet's play Race on Broadway.

Izzard has appeared in numerous films, starting with The Secret Agent in 1996, and has appeared as several real-life individuals, including Charlie Chaplin in The Cat's Meow, actor Gustav von Wangenheim in Shadow of the Vampire, General Erich Fellgiebel in Valkyrie and wartime pioneer of radar Robert Watson-Watt in the BBC drama film Castles in the Sky. Other roles have included Mr Kite in Across the Universe, Lussurioso in Revengers Tragedy and criminal expert Roman Nagel in Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. Her voice work has included the titular "It" in Five Children and It, Nigel in The Wild and the mouse warrior Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Izzard declined to reprise the role as Reepicheep, a role understudied by Simon Pegg in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Izzard has stated that she felt she learned to act while working on the film Circus.

In 2009, Izzard was the subject of Sarah Townsend's documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story, which addresses BBC's Watchdog reporting of "recycling material from an old tour".

Izzard appeared in the 2009 BBC science fiction miniseries The Day of the Triffids, based on the 1951 novel, alongside Jason Priestley, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Dougray Scott and Brian Cox. She played Dr. Hatteras, a sceptical psychology professor, in the Showtime series United States of Tara and appeared in six episodes of the 2013–15 American psychological horror television series Hannibal as Dr. Abel Gideon. In 2021, she appeared in the television series The Lost Symbol based on Dan Brown's 2009 novel of the same name.

At the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Izzard presented the medals to the athletes who had won the 800m T54 race, including gold medalist David Weir.

She has appeared on a number of episodes of BBC One's Have I Got News for You and as a guest on The Daily Show. In 2017, she read excerpts from her autobiography Believe Me for BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.

From 25 January to 3 March 2024, Izzard performed a one-person version of Shakespeare's Hamlet, adapted by her brother Mark and directed by Selina Cadell, at the Greenwich House Theater in New York. The run was extended three times. The show transferred to Riverside Studios, London, with previews from 23 May 2024.

Charity work

On 27 July 2009, with only five weeks' training and no significant prior running experience, Izzard began seven weeks of back-to-back marathon runs (with Sundays off) across the UK to raise money for Sport Relief. She ran from London to Cardiff to Belfast to Edinburgh and back to London, carrying the flag of the country—England, Scotland, or Wales—in which she was running. In Northern Ireland, she carried a self-designed green flag bearing a white dove. The blog Eddie Iz Running documented the 43 marathons in 51 days, covering at least 27 miles per day (totalling more than 1,100 miles), ending on 15 September 2009. The BBC reported that Izzard took 5 to 10 hours per marathon. Izzard received a special award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2009 for these achievements. In March 2010, she took part in the Sport Relief Mile event.

On 16 February 2016, the BBC announced that Izzard would attempt to run 27 marathons in 27 days through South Africa for Sport Relief. The significance of the number 27 came from the number of years Nelson Mandela was held in prison. In total, she would aim to run more than 700 miles in temperatures of up to 40 °C. Izzard had attempted such a project in South Africa in 2012, but withdrew due to health concerns. She completed the first marathon on 23 February 2016, completing the marathon challenge on 20 March 2016 at the statue of Mandela in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Because she had spent a day in hospital, she had to run two consecutive marathons on this last day. She raised more than £1.35M for Sport Relief. A BBC documentary detailing the feat was broadcast on 28 March.

On 8 December 2020, Izzard announced that she would attempt to run 31 marathons and perform 31 stand-up gigs, in the 31 days of January 2021 to raise money for a range of charities including Fareshare, Walking With The Wounded, Care International, United to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases and Covenant House. The series of marathons raised in excess of £275,000.

Labour Party

Izzard joined the Labour Party in 1995 and in 1998 was listed as one of the largest private donors to the party. In 2008, she donated nearly £10,000 to it. She appeared in party political broadcasts for the Labour Party in the run-up to the 2005 general election and 2009 European election, as well as a 2010 election video entitled Brilliant Britain. During the 2015 general election, she attended a rally with fellow comedian Ben Elton and actor Sally Lindsay. Expressing support for Labour in the 2017 general election, she said that the then-leader of the party Jeremy Corbyn "believes in what he says".

At various times, Izzard said she would run for Mayor of London in 2020. When asked on the comedy panel show The Last Leg why she would be elected, Izzard replied, "Boris Johnson." However, she was not a candidate for the delayed 2021 London mayoral election. Izzard unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party in 2016 and 2018. After Christine Shawcroft resigned in March 2018, Izzard replaced her as the next runner-up, but failed to secure re-election that summer.

On 25 August 2022, Izzard stated in an interview on BBC Radio Sheffield that she would like to ask the local Constituency Labour Party to stand in Sheffield Central, replacing the incumbent MP Paul Blomfield, who is standing down at the 2024 election. Local reaction, according to the Sheffield Star newspaper, was mixed. She launched her election campaign on 11 October. On 5 December, it was reported that a local Sheffield City councillor had been selected as the party's candidate for the safe seat, with Izzard coming second in the members' vote.

In August 2023, Izzard announced her campaign to become the Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion at the next general election, following the decision of the incumbent Green MP Caroline Lucas not to recontest the seat. On 17 December 2023, it was announced that Izzard had not been selected as a Labour candidate at the next general election and that Tom Gray would be contesting Brighton Pavilion on behalf of the Labour Party instead.

Personal life

Izzard has identified as genderfluid. She has stated that she realised by age four that she was a transvestite, but did not come out until the age of 29. According to her 2017 memoir Believe Me, she first cross-dressed in public at the age of 23 with the help of a lesbian friend, an experience which ended in a verbal confrontation with three 13-year-old girls who followed Izzard home from a public toilet. She started to publicly identify as transvestite in venues such as the Edinburgh Festival as early as 1992. She remarked in her 1994 performance Unrepeatable that "women wear what they want and so do I." In 2004, Izzard said "I'm a straight transvestite or male lesbian […] I'd say I'm a complete boy plus half a girl." She stated in 2014 that the way she dressed was neither part of her performance, nor a sexual fetish: "I don't call it drag; I don't even call it cross-dressing. It's just wearing a dress. It's not about artifice. It's about me just expressing myself."

In 2015 she expressed the conviction that being transgender is caused by genetics and that someday this will be scientifically proven; in preparation, she has had her own genome sequenced. In 2016 Izzard described herself as "somewhat boy-ish and somewhat girl-ish" and as a "transgender guy".

When asked in 2019 what pronouns she preferred, Izzard responded, "either 'he' or 'she'" and explained, "If I am in boy mode, then 'he', or girl mode, 'she'". In 2020, she requested she/her pronouns for an appearance on the TV show Portrait Artist of the Year and said she wanted "to be based in girl mode from now on". In March 2023, she announced that she would begin using the name Suzy in addition to Eddie, saying that she was "going to be Suzy Eddie Izzard". Explaining that she had wanted to use the name Suzy since she was 10 years old, she added that people "can choose" which name they want to use to refer to her, and that she would keep using Eddie Izzard as her public name since it is more widely recognised.

Izzard keeps her romantic life private, citing the wishes of her companions in not wanting to become content for her show. She once dated Irish singer Sarah Townsend, whom Izzard first met while running a venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1989. Townsend later created the documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story.

Izzard is an atheist. During the 2008 Stripped tour, she said, "I was warming the material up in New York, where one night, literally on stage, I realised I didn't believe in God at all. I just didn't think there was anyone upstairs." She has since described herself as a spiritual atheist, saying, "I don't believe in the guy upstairs, I believe in us."

Izzard supports Crystal Palace and became an associate director at the club on 16 July 2012. She is also a railway modeller.