Maureen Lipman (DBE) is a British actress, columnist, and comedian. She was born in Hull in 1946 and grew up Jewish. She trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Lipman was a member of Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company and the Old Vic from 1971 to 1973 and of the Royal Shakespeare Company for its 1973 Stratford season. After appearances in sitcoms like The Lovers (1970-1971) and Doctor at Large (1971), she gained prominence on television in the 1979 sitcom Agony. Lipman was married to dramatist Jack Rosenthal from 1974 until his death in 2004 and had a number of roles in his productions. They have two children, writers Amy Rosenthal and Adam Rosenthal. Lipman was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Comedy Performance in 1985 for See How They Run (1984). She also starred in the series All at No 20 (1986-1987) and About Face (1989-1991). In a series of television commercials for British Telecom, she portrayed a Jewish grandmother, Beatrice Bellman. Her show Live and Kidding (1997) was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. She is also known for her roles in Coronation Street (2002) and The Fugitives (2006). At the Polish Film Awards in 2003, she was nominated Best Supporting Actress for Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002). Lipman wrote monthly columns for Good Housekeeping magazine, which produced several biographical books. From 2005 to 2006, she played Florence Foster Jenkins in the show Glorious! at the Duchess Theatre in London’s West End. She directed and appeared in a production of Barefoot in the Park (2012) on tour and starred in several other plays, including Harvey (2015) and The Best Man (2018). In 2018, she returned to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a one-woman show called Up For It. Lipman is on the editorial advisory board of Jewish Renaissance magazine. Her latest  filmography includes The Schnoz (2020), whilst on television Lipman has commenced roles in Coronation Street (2018-), Celebrity Gogglebox (2020-), Rose (2021) and DNA Journey (2022). Lipman won Best Newcomer, in 2019, at the Inside Soap Awards and Best Comedy Performance, in 2023, at The British Soap Awards- both for her role in Coronation Street.

Lipman was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1999 New Year Honours List. She was later appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, in 2020, for her services to charity, entertainment and the arts.