Charlie George (comedian)

Kali Varghese formerly known as Charlie George is a British writer, performer, poet and comedian from Swindon.^[1] In 2019, she won "The Comedy Bloomers LGBTQ+ New Comedian of the Year"^[2] and was a runner-up in both So You Think You're Funny^[3] and Funny Women.^[1]

As a scriptwriter, she has written for British comedy shows Have I Got News for You, Death to 2020,^[4] Death to 2021,^[5] Blankety Blank, Joe Lycett's Got Your Back^[6] and Frankie Boyle's New World Order.^[7]

A talented and accomplished writer Charlie was chosen to feature in Charlie Brooker’s writers room for Cunk & Other Humans 2019, The BAFTA nominated AntiViral Wipe 2020, Death to 2020 & 2021 for Netflix and BBC’s Emmy nominated Cunk on Life. She has written for the C4 Election night special, 8 out of 10 cats, Hypothetical, Newsjack, The Now Show, Have I Got News For You, Horrible Histories, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, Stand Up to Cancer (C4) Kiri Pritchard-McLean’s Best Medicine (R4) Season 1 and 2 and Mawaan Rizwan’s BAFTA winning Juice (BBC).

She has been published in: Tangled Roots: Real Life Stories from Mixed Race Britain, Stories of Autistic Joy and HNDL Magazine. She currently writes on all things travel, nature, gardening and Decolonial perspectives on healing for our times at her Medium and Substack.

In 2020, she was one of a select group of 14 new writers selected by Penguin Random House UK for their WriteNow editorial programme.^[8]

In 2022, she is participating of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the compilation show "Clandestina: Queer Comedy Triple Bill",^[9] along with fellow comedian Victoria Comedy (winner of LGBTQ+ Comedian of the Year 2022^[10]).

In 2025, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work as a writer of Cunk On Life (Netflix).^[11]

She has written multiple original comedy/comedy-drama scripts and won two New York Festivals Radio Awards for ‘Best Writing’ & ‘Best Regularly Scheduled Comedy Programme’ for her writing contributions to ‘Rockanory’ an original series for Absolute Radio with Unusual Productions.

Charlie was a regular MC/host and spoke and gigged all across the country. She was the host of a large scale touring work in collaboration with artist Amartey Golding in a show called ‘Whose Anthem is it anyway?’ with a full live band, exploring an alternative collective national anthem for England with the public using a voting app.

She also co-hosted an Audible original podcast series exploring evidence-based solutions to improving wellbeing & mental health with anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota called ‘Happiness and how to get it.’ Because her preferred title ‘Despair and how to release its death grip.’ wasn’t “a viable option.” And hosted a podcast for the Tate Modern gallery called ‘The Art of Comedy.’

Charlie has been in the arts in the UK since her early teens, training at Circomedia in Bristol and setting up her own dance company Dark Island Dance where she choreographed and led commercial performances for festivals & large scale events, as well as community dance in care homes and specialist schools for those with disabilities.

In response to a sexist remark made in UK parliament and the creation of the feminist festival Calm Down Dear. Charlie formed the rebel feminist performance collective ‘The Femme Fatales’ exploring themes of sovereignty & bodily autonomy.

Charlie occasionally gigs for and speaks at organisations such as Faith to Faithless and Humanists UK who support people with the trauma of being raised within and leaving high control religious groups.

Since experiencing post Covid chronic illness Charlie now Kali is currently re-evaluating her approach to live work and has been moving at a gentler pace on the local spoken word and poetry circuit.

She is currently working on her first book.