Catherine Tate née Ford, (born May 12, 1968) is a BAFTA and Emmy Award-nominated English comedienne and actress best known for her BBC Two sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show. Following her success on The Catherine Tate Show, she played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of Doctor Who and is now set to reprise the role of Donna to become the Doctor's companion throughout series four in 2008.

Tate began her acting career with roles in serial dramas such as Casualty. She appeared in comedy series such as The Harry Hill Show, Barking and That Peter Kay Thing and soon after she became involved with Lee Mack's Perrier-nominated New Bits show at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2000. In 2001 she returned to the festival with her own one-woman show which was followed by roles in Big Train, Attention Scum and TVGoHome. After being spotted at Edinburgh, she was offered a role in the comedy Wild West with Dawn French. She was then given her own programme, which she co-wrote with Derren Litten, entitled The Catherine Tate Show.

After The Catherine Tate Show became a success, in March, 2005, she made an appearance during the BBC's Comic Relief as the character of Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show, alongside boy-band McFly. In November, 2005, Tate appeared in another charity sketch as part of the BBC's annual Children in Need telethon. The segment was a crossover between EastEnders and The Catherine Tate Show, featuring Eastender characters Peggy Mitchell, Little Mo Mitchell and Stacey Slater, and Tate appeared in the guise of her well-known character Lauren Cooper. The sketch saw Lauren arrive in Walford in search of revenge on Stacey, who had apparently stolen her boyfriend. After arguing with Peggy, Lauren eventually left The Queen Victoria pub after uttering some famous lines from the soap, including "Hello Princess" and "Rickaay!", along with her usual catchphrase, "Am I Bovvered?" and making various references to cockney culture, such as asking Peggy whether she knew Chas & Dave.

Also in November, Tate was a guest star at the 77th Royal Variety Performance and once again appeared in the guise of Lauren, accompanied by her friends Ryan and Liese. During the sketch, Tate, as her character Lauren, looked up at the Royal Box and asked the Queen; "Is one bovvered? Is one's face bovvered?".

At the end of 2005 she appeared in the award-winning BBC television adaptation of Bleak House. She has been commissioned to write a TV drama for the BBC's forthcoming Decades project. She also had a role in the television adaptation of the novel The Bad Mother's Handbook where she co-starred along side Anne Reid.