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Katherine Ryan couldn’t look any more serene sitting in the dark with her laptop open, white noise machine humming and an infant sleeping in her arms. It’s about 7 p.m. in the U.K., where she’s chatting about her long overdue return to America since giving birth to her fifth child, Holland (the napping one) and even longer since her last Netflix comedy special (2019’s “Glitter Room”) was seen by stateside audiences.
But even five years of perpetual pregnancy hasn’t stopped the comedian known for being glamorously gauche, from saying the crude things we all think while wearing a chic outfit and a smile. It’s the effortlessly striking relatability that continues to win over audiences in the U.K., her home for the last 18 years as she’s gone from a struggling stand-up to a TV series and game show star (see shows like “The Duchess” and “Out of Order”) that still found time to put out two comedy specials on Sky Comedy UK (“The Missus” and “First Born Daughter”) since making her Netflix debut in 2017 with “In Trouble.”
This Thursday, Ryan lands in L.A. at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre to showcase a new hour of imported comedy that makes jokes about her motherhood journey in the U.K. and, of course, our scandalous pop culture — which now includes the David and Victoria Beckham family drama spilling all over social media. Recently, Ryan spoke about the Beckham situation, the process of writing material as a mother without embarrassing her kids and her new goal of returning to the career trajectory of her pre-pregnant self in the near future.
This whole Beckham family saga that’s exploded in recent days feels like a rare gem for you as a U.K. comedian since its a celebrity-driven story that people are talking about in your home country and the U.S. What is that like, as someone who is a celebrity parent yourself?
It’s wonderful reprieve from fascism, ICE and Greenland. Finally, just some light family drama that everyone can kick back and enjoy. I feel like Victoria Beckham is such a treasure in [the U.K.], and I’m quite good friends with several Spice Girls. I went to Mel B’s wedding earlier last year. I’m not close with Victoria, but obviously I’m a woman of that generation where I learned to shake my ass to the Spice Girls in 1996 so I have undying loyalties to her. There is this very interesting nepo conversation to be had, and [her son Brooklyn] was one of the original ones. He was born at a time when in the U.K. we were obsessed with celebrity. We hadn’t really figured out yet how damaging it might be to take an in infant and follow his entire life and commodify it as though he was our own. But I’m definitely enjoying all of the memes and jokes. A lot of fans, myself included, have been downloading Victoria’s single on iTunes. We decided it was a national travesty that she never had a No. 1 hit because all the other Spice Girls have independently had No. 1 singles, and just yesterday, Victoria’s single “Innocent Girl” got to No. 1 on iTunes.
So has the controversy made Posh Spice feel more relatable?
I think that it has actually been an incredible vehicle for her. This is the most relatable she’s ever been. Vicki B drunk on the vino being inappropriate at the wedding? We love it. I think that the Beckhams have been almost like royalty and quite untouchable. And this has made her really relatable, having her son lash out at her like this so publicly. I know in L.A., you really validate everyone’s mental health. I hope this is the end of mental health. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. After this very privileged little boy claims to have mental health problems and anxiety over his mom dancing with him at a wedding.
How did being pregnant with your fifth child during the taping of your latest special, “Firstborn Daughter,” factor into your writing and performing it?
I was pregnant in the last two specials. In “Missus” [released in 2022], I was just a little bit pregnant. You couldn’t tell, except I was, like, unplaceably really ugly. You didn’t know why. You could put your finger on if I was just, like, ugly. And then for this last special I was heavily pregnant. I think since Ali Wong’s Baby Cobra was huge, there has been a little bit of a trend of female comedians recording specials pregnant. Rosebud Baker was on a podcast, and the lads were asking her, “Oh, it’s a thing now for women [comedians] to be pregnant?” And she said, “No, we were always pregnant. We just weren’t really welcome into spaces that we’re welcome into now.” I would have loved to record the special not pregnant, but I have just been relentlessly pregnant for five years.
Has the pregnant portion of your life influenced your perspective on writing jokes?
I think that I haven’t slept in four years. All I know is this bubble of looking after my kids and trying to work, and I talk about my life, and I talk about my relationships and my experience. So I think being pregnant and having small children certainly have influenced my material. I hope I haven’t lost my edge. I like being provocative, I like being controversial. I think I’ve retained that voice, but now I’m absolutely done having kids, and I want to get back to a spicy 2018 comedian that I used to be. I feel like I’m done talking about these kids, and especially since Brooklyn Beckham has come out and publicly humiliated his entire family. Maybe we should all think twice before including our kids in any of our creative work.
Yes, back up off the youngsters a little bit. I mean, they have enough problems.
I don’t want to be “Brooklyn Beckhamed” out here, and I have a 16-year-old and she’s cool about [me telling jokes about her]. She I have always spoken about her in my stand-up. So I’m not a new mom, I’ve been one for my whole career, and I think it’s just really important that even though I speak about my experience as a parent, and I think I speak about my kids, they are never the punchline. I’m always the punchline. So I do think I speak very powerfully about my kids, I make sure that I’m not just making fun of them. I’m doing jokes which are adjacent to them, but they’re hopefully not at my children’s expense.
“I think I want to see if I can get back to like a spicy pre-trad wife Katherine Ryan.”
(Courtesy of Katherine Ryan)
As far as the generation of young women that your 16-year-old daughter, Violet, is a part of, what gives you hope about her generation and what kind of scares you about them?
I don’t think that they work as hard as we do. I know they don’t like to hear that, and I also know they’re in a difficult position, because there are fewer jobs for them, and they had COVID and everything else, but these young women really prioritize self-care on a level that I do worry about. I got to where I am through so much struggle, resilience and tenacity. I was a single mom in a foreign country. I was really poor for a long time. I’m not sure this generation, anyone from this generation, has skills to survive that. Interestingly, the girls that I overhear speaking about romantic relationships, many of them are not in heteronormative relationships. Many of them are quite gender fluid, and that’s great, but the heteronormative girls are interesting because they want to be financially solvent. They want to be really successful, but they want men to pay. They’re traditional in a way. They’re like, he should pay for everything, he should do this. I don’t know if it’s the trad-wife movement online or what has precipitated this, but my generation was very much splitting the bill. And this generation is like, “I’m gonna work and he’s gonna work, but I’m not paying for anything.” I think it’s really interesting. I just watched them, and I go, “Oh, I always paid for everything all my life. Good for you guys if it works.”
Now that you’re having the experience of raising boys and girls, how do you describe the differences between raising both genders?
My son is a toxic male. He’s 4 years old, so he might grow out of it, but he likes violence, and he wants to fight his dad all the time, and he struggles to express himself. And then my 2-year-old daughter is just resilient and strong, like something goes wrong in her day. She’s like, “Oh, I have the mental fortitude to withstand this temporary blow.” She has perspective. Before having kids, I thought I would raise all my children the same. I consider myself to be an LGBTQIA+ ally. My boy is such a traditional boy, and then the girls want to dress up like mermaids and princesses. It’s like, it really reinforces just are who you are. I’m sure you could have a boy that wasn’t like my son. … He’s like a bit of a slap in the face from God, like, “You know all those things you said about men? Here is a little boy who is gonna sit behind you in the car seat on the way to nursery and hold a sword to your throat. You know, that’s the kind of boy that I got, he likes weapons. But again, he has this softness and this sensitivity that is really sweet to see, like he gets upset more easily than the girls.
Having done two Netflix specials and two U.K.-based Sky Comedy specials, what are some key differences between dealing with the two different streaming platforms?
It was a huge deal when I did my first Netflix special. I couldn’t believe it. I was one of the first British comedians to have one, one of the first Canadian comedians to have one. It was really daunting, and they have since grown and included lots of specials from all over the world. And I think that’s really great. I love Netflix, but they want their comedy to make sense in America, which is fair enough. And so anytime I did a special for Netflix, I would have to change a few things, because even though I sound American, I am a British comedian. I’ve been [in the U.K.] for 18 years, and when I do specials on Sky, they’re OK with all of my British references. They might be celebrity niche references. They I don’t get Americanized in the same way, and I don’t mind changing my stuff to make sense in America. I think that if you’re a world-touring comedian, you do that in every country that you go to. But, yeah, certainly the difference in the specials is, is that that I can just say whatever I want to say in the Sky specials, and in America, they want it to make sense to you guys, but I think that that is like almost selling your audience short, because there’s so much global access to comedy now that plenty of Americans know British television.
Have you noticed any sort of notable evolution in the U.K. comedy scene in the last few years?
I was really lucky that I moved here and was able to work here immediately. Because I’m an Irish citizen, there’s so much alternative comedy. There’s so much opportunity for new comedians to hone their craft and to do rooms or to do an hour at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It’s not really gate-kept by famous people. People in the U.K. will go out to seek live comedy every night of the week, and they don’t expect Dave Chappelle to walk on the stage there. They’re very happy with unknown comedians, and so it was really quite easy to grow here. I had lots of opportunities to practice.
What inspired you to start your new podcast “What’s My Age Again?”? It’s basically a talk show based on your your biological age and how you feel and how you want to find that longevity.
I think bio hacking in America, especially, is a huge conversation. And I think what I wanted to do was just to chat show, like just interview comedians and celebrities, but I thought it was a fun hook to ask them for their blood and then to find out what kind of inflammation they had and how they’ve lived their lives, and then go in to asking them about stress and career and family and lifestyle. I think it’s just like any chat show, really, but just with this hook where we ask them for all of their genetic material, and for some reason, they give it to us. Yeah, it’s been really interesting. I think for a while, people were consumed with looking young, and now it’s more about feeling young and feeling well, and being able to maybe be older, but still have your body move the way you want, and to be healthy. And I think that’s really positive thing. Rather than just being thin and being young and getting Botox, this is about being well, and then it’s so interesting.
Is there a major goal that you set for yourself for 2026?
I mean, yes, but it’s not a virtuous one. I think that I made a choice in 2019 when I reconnected with my husband, who was my childhood sweetheart, and we decided to have all these kids, I made a choice to focus on my family, and that’s been so rewarding. Obviously I’m existentially very happy, but I miss the hustle, I miss being like the having an autonomous ownership over my body, where I’m not growing someone or breastfeeding someone or anything else. So I think I want to really lean into, comedy writing, glamour and touring. I think I want to see if I can get back to like a spicy pre-trad wife Katherine Ryan.
