British stand-up comedian, actor and activist whose comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime. Since March 2023, the genderfluid performer has been known alternatively as Suzy Eddie Izzard; the entertainer prefers she/her pronouns but “doesn’t mind” he and him. In the past, Izzard identified as a transvestite, and has also called herself “a lesbian trapped in a man’s body” and “a complete boy plus half girl”.
In 2000, Izzard won two Emmy Awards for Best Acting by a Single Performer in a Comedy, Musical, or Variety Special and Best Writing in a Comedy, Musical, or Variety Special for Dress to Kill which aired on HBO throughout 1999. This was followed with a sold-out, eight-city tour of North America, which ended in New York City. He is 5’ 7″ with untidy dyed blond hair and a rumpled face that looks slept in.
Born in Yemen to British parents, Izzard was the oldest of two sons. The family moved to Ireland then South Wales in 1967 where his dad worked as an accountant and his mother as a nurse. He remembers his mother as being wonderfully loving and never critical that he liked to dress in girl’s clothes from the time he was four. His mother died of cancer in 1968, when Eddie was six. Before her death, his parents had decided that their sons would be best at boarding school. “It was like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer,” Izzard recalled. “Occasionally I still collapse in floods of tears at the thought of it. Off I went to St John’s boarding school in Porthcawl, Wales. It was run by a very pleasant man called Mr. Crump whom we nicknamed ‘the man from hell that we all hate’. Seeing as my Mum had just died I decided to cry relentlessly for about a year. Mr. Crump would help me along with beatings when he could fit them in.”
At 15 he discovered puberty, acne and acting. Dropping out of upper school after a year, he spent five years as a street performer, working as a barman or waiter for sustenance. Izzard ‘came out’ as transgender when he was 23, although he didn’t begin to wear frocks and skirts and blood-red nails on stage until years later. After an apprenticeship on the streets, Izzard reached the status of a world-class entertainer during his eight years as a main stage act. He has taken his unique brand of comedy to Iceland, France and Australia before taking America by storm with his outrageous and hilarious comedy show.
Izzard believes in clothing equality and, because women have a choice of pants and dresses, he thinks men should, too. He might stick to pants for his stage show but often wears makeup, nail polish and, always, outrageous high heels. You think Tina Turner looks good strutting in stilettos? Wait till you see Izzard. Religion is a favorite theme. He acts out conversations between Jesus and God, with God’s voice always an imitation of the great British actor James Mason. During the Los Angeles run of Izzard’s latest one-man show, “Circle,” his first words as God brought delighted shouts and applause from audiences that included Cher, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Anniston and Elvis Costello. In Circle, major topics included the pope, Charlton Heston, the Spanish Inquisition, Elian Gonzalez, the Pinochet scandal, Margaret Thatcher, Jesus, God and dinosaurs. As with his other five shows, Circle was sold on video and, like Dress to Kill, was taped for HBO.
In 1993 Izzard began to climb the ladder of success in earnest, with sold-out bookings and the first awards beginning to pour in. Along with tours and videos, his first big screen role was as a Russian agent in The Secret Agent (1996). The following year, he took the East Village by storm with his second sold-out appearance in New York City.
In July 1995 Izzard’s autobiography, Dress to Kill, was reissued as a paperback. He then said, “Even though I’m transvestite, I happen to fancy women. I’d be quite happy to be gay, it might even make more sense, but I’m not. As to having children – yeah, I’d like children. I’d be the ultimate one-parent family.”
Izzard keeps her romantic life private, citing the wishes of her companions 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.
Link to Wikipedia biography