Comedian and activist Suzy Eddie Izzard says she’s wanted her new name since the age of 10
Suzy Eddie Izzard at the opening night of Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ in New York in 2022.Suzy Eddie Izzard was born on February 7, 1962, in Aden, Yemen, to English parents. She began her career as a street performer in the US and Europe. She later returned to the UK and began performing in venues such as The Comedy Store where her popularity grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Her big break came when she appeared in Hysteria III, a 1991 AIDS fundraiser held at the London Palladium, and did her now-famous “Raised by wolves” sketch. Her style has often been compared to the Monty Python comedians. She is also known for her impressions, often using the voice of James Mason to portray God as an inadequate figure of authority, or the use of Sean Connery’s voice to portray the Biblical figure of Noah.
Suzy Eddie Izzard opens up about the surprising moment her pronouns were changed to she/her
Izzard came out as transgender in the 1980s. She started using the pronouns she/her in 2019 after the chancellor of Swansea University referred to Izzard with those pronouns during a ceremony in which she was presented with an honorary degree. She explained that “it felt amazing” to hear herself referred to as “she/her” and adopted the pronouns as her own thereafter.
In December 2020, the actor’s pronouns changed unintentionally when she appeared on the Sky Arts program to have her portrait painted by a group of artists. In a new interview on the My Seven Wonders with Clive Anderson podcast, the comedian explained that she identifies as ‘gender fluid’, and is ‘now based as a trans woman’.
The star said: ‘My pronouns… I didn’t change my pronouns. I was thinking of changing them.’
‘I went on a program called Portrait Artist of the Year, Sky Arts, very nice, go on there.’
‘Some young artists painting me, they ask me, like a coffee thing, they said, she/her or he/him? I was wearing a dress and I’m based as a trans woman now, so she/her, I’ll have a latte – it was that kind of lack of stress.’
Comedian Eddie Izzard speaks during Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 21, 2018, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)Suzy Eddie Izzard is looking forward to a new chapter.
The activist and comedian announced her new name on an episode of the Political Party podcast.
“I’m going to be Suzy Eddie Izzard, that’s how I’m going to roll,” she said. “So, people can choose what they want. They can’t make a mistake. They can’t go wrong with me.”
The Emmy winner said on the podcast that she’s wanted to go by the name of Suzy since she was 10 years old. At the time, she said, she thought “no this is not going to happen.”
Once Izzard’s Hollywood career began picking up, she said she felt like she couldn’t “redo” what her public-facing name had already become.
“And then I thought well if I’m doing she/her, why don’t I add that to the name? Because I’ve got ‘Edward’ on my passport, it’s quite wooden and big and I don’t call myself that. So, I just thought I’ll add Suzy there, and then Eddie, and people can choose what they want and no one can go wrong,” she said.
Izzard has had a decades-long career in film and television appearing in “Ocean’s 11” films and NBC’s “Hannibal” series, among many other titles, in addition to her stand-up comedy work. Outside of Hollywood, Izzard is a member of the UK’s Labour Party and is a dedicated political activist.
An article by Liviu Bulea
Liviu Bulea is a visual artist, curator, and cultural manager. His practice is closely linked to LGBTQ+ rights, pollution, and migration issues. Liviu is currently a doctoral student at the University of Arts and Design in Cluj, RO.
