Robyn Dunlop is a young comedian and actress, taking on South Africa and the World! She makes people laugh, she makes them cringe on occasion in a hide-your-face-and-don’t-tell-your-mom-what-happened-tonight kind of way. She can really put her foot in it sometimes. But she’s young and she’ll figure it out. We believe in her! She mostly has non-cringy moments these days. We’re proud.
She wasn’t always like this. She used to be the perfect daughter, the kind you would bring home to meet your parents. She really was on her way to being the kind of go-getter female in industry they talk about in the news these days; flawlessly juggling children, pets, work, husband and even the PTA (that’s not a thing in South Africa, but Governing Body didn’t sound as fun) while throwing in a ParkRun on a Saturday. Those dreams of the white picket fence are no longer, no. Now her honour’s degree in Biochemistry lies rolled up in the bottom draw (not even framed, just gathering dust), and she is not meeting anybody’s mother anytime soon. Meeting a son is a miracle at this point.
No, she discovered she gets far more joy out of telling her story to strangers than to cancer cells growing in a lab. Her performances were not nearly getting enough praise from the beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks, she needed to branch out. The problem with leaving a sterile environment to seek applause and laughter, it’s hard to go back. She just never shut up after that. Now she’s acting, well trying to. Aren’t we all?
She’s from Johannesburg, South Africa. Born and raised as they say. Bryanston. A bit hoity toity but she’s managed to keep her wits about her and stay grounded. Mostly because she was shy at school so didn’t really hang with the ‘cool kids’. She was picked for the South African Hip Hop team for the world cup in 2012, this must be noted although she didn’t compete, she went to university instead. I mean the Varsity gig was quite cool, she got an honour’s degree, not too shabby. Got a sales job, like I said, she’s a bit chatty. Then she went off to Au Pair, the office environment is a bit much for the young lead in our story. Being a nanny was more of the pace she liked, and a dead-sure way to find an American husband, surely! She went back home without a ring, but she found something much more better, a passion, a drive to push boundaries, a 5 minute set.
In summary, “she’s lovely and very funny” (direct quote from an older, wiser comedian) and she’s made people laugh all over the world (South Africa, New York, London, Los Angeles several other cities that she’ll tell you about the food in). If you like to laugh, and you’re tired of the same lineups, you should have her. Trust me.