Hot Shots 2026: Kate Lennon

Last year, with 15 years’ experience in the comedy talent industry under her belt, Kate Lennon took the major step of launching a consultancy for underrepresented talent.

REPPD is borne out of her own frustration with how women are treated in comedy since starting out as a stand-up in the early 2010s.

“Being a woman in comedy is still harder than it should be,” she says. “The industry has improved, but bias remains a daily reality. I’ve navigated rooms where I wasn’t taken seriously, watched exceptional female comedians overlooked in favour of safer choices, and felt the pressure to work twice as hard for half the recognition.”

With REPPD, Kate is offering a variety of models, including pay-as-you-go, in a bid to level the playing field and bring commissioners and promoters into contact with talent beyond the mainstream.

Kate’s influence on the comedy scene is also reflected in her role as associate comedy producer for the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham and as a judge for competitions including the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year, Sketch Off and Old Comedian of the Year.

Starting out in entry-level jobs at Bwark, Zodiak Media and Tiger Aspect, Kate picked up credits on sketch show Cardinal Burns, sitcoms Drifters and Spy, and The Inbetweeners Movie.

Kate later co-founded the award-winning sketch group Kitten Killers and worked behind the scenes on productions including iTunes podcast Baines Plus One and Edinburgh Fringe hit 2 Girls 1 Cup of Comedy.

As a senior comedy producer at comedy community Funny Women, Kate delivered more than 150 live events a year, including workshops, conferences, previews and the Funny Women Awards.

She then became the first staff signing at UTC Artistic Management, where she secured bookings on shows such as Live at the Apollo, QI, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You for her gender-balanced roster of 14 comedians, among them Toussaint Douglass, Ria Lina, Thanyia Moore, Stephen Bailey and Ola Labib.

Lina, who has worked with Kate for 11 years, is excited about the potential for REPPD to tackle an industry-wide problem.

“Kate’s done something most agents only talk about: built an actual route into the industry for comedians without representation and that is huge,” she says.

“She is a respected member of the comedy industry and pioneering something that she knows will shake things up. With REPPD, Kate spotted what’s missing in UK comedy and built something for it. People should be paying attention to her.”