Karen Bartke
Karen first found her feet as a member of Glasgow Schools Youth Theatre before studying Archaeology at the University of Glasgow.
On screen she is best known as Officer Karen in the BAFTA winning mockumentary Scot Squad (Comedy Unit). She was nominated for a Scottish Comedy Award in the Best Comedy Actress category for her performance, but lost out to Isla Nelson, 3 year old star of News at Three. She was also recently seen in Coronation Street in several episodes as one of the doctors caring for a sepsis stricken Jack Webster.
Stage roles include originating the character of Suzy/Sajida in My Name Is... (Tamasha Theatre, UK tour) for which she was nominated for an Off West End Award and an Asian Culture, Theatre & Arts Award in the Best Actress categories.
Additional stage credits include Tracks of the Winter Bear (Traverse Theatre); The Man Who Had All The Luck (Sell A Door/Mull Theatre UK tour); There's Something About Mary Queen of Scots (Ree Productions); No Time Has Passed in Hippoland (Sonic Boom); Pygmalion(GTP); Twelfth Night (Goodnightout Theatre)
On radio, Karen reprised her role as Suzy in My Name Is... for BBC Radio 4, for which she received a BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Debut Performance. In 2016, she was extremely honoured to be awarded the Norman Beaton Fellowship and joined the BBC Radio Drama Company for a 5 month contract.
Karen showed her versatility, performing in over 30 productions during her tenure as (amongst other things) a Russian seagull, an Australian PE teacher, a pirate, Katherine Whitehorn, a professor of robotics and a ghost.
Other radio productions included Neil Gaiman's Stardust; Marathon Man; Rebus: Fleshmarket Close; 4:4; Wild Things; Watership Down; Blood, Sex & Money: Apocalypse; Cooking in a Bedsitter; Incredible Women; The Mysteries of Udolpho; Northanger Abbey; The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde; Inappropriate Relationships; Romance is Dead and Somewhere in England. Additional radio comedy performances include The Now Show; The John Moloney Show; What Does the K Stand For; It's Jocelyn and Rich Hall's US Election Breakdown.
Since leaving the BBC Radio Drama Company, Karen has recorded a number of additional audio roles, including as Sgt Pettigrew in the audio movie Alien: River of Pain, directed by Dirk Maggs for Audible UK. She is best known for her performances as Warder Anne Bishius in Daniel Maier's surreal comedy Life on Egg and as the redoubtable Florrie Featherstonehaugh in Tommies, both on Radio 4.
Karen also performs as a member of Q Fusion Improv, as part of the sketch comedy shows Man vs. Woman and Alchemy and in her spare time Karen is quite literally a singer in a band with classic rock’n'roll party band The Sentinels.
Karen first found her feet as a member of Glasgow Schools Youth Theatre before studying Archaeology at the University of Glasgow.
On screen she is best known as Officer Karen in the BAFTA winning mockumentary Scot Squad (Comedy Unit). She was nominated for a Scottish Comedy Award in the Best Comedy Actress category for her performance, but lost out to Isla Nelson, 3 year old star of News at Three. She was also recently seen in Coronation Street in several episodes as one of the doctors caring for a sepsis stricken Jack Webster.
Stage roles include originating the character of Suzy/Sajida in My Name Is... (Tamasha Theatre, UK tour) for which she was nominated for an Off West End Award and an Asian Culture, Theatre & Arts Award in the Best Actress categories.
Additional stage credits include Tracks of the Winter Bear (Traverse Theatre); The Man Who Had All The Luck (Sell A Door/Mull Theatre UK tour); There's Something About Mary Queen of Scots (Ree Productions); No Time Has Passed in Hippoland (Sonic Boom); Pygmalion(GTP); Twelfth Night (Goodnightout Theatre)
On radio, Karen reprised her role as Suzy in My Name Is... for BBC Radio 4, for which she received a BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Debut Performance. In 2016, she was extremely honoured to be awarded the Norman Beaton Fellowship and joined the BBC Radio Drama Company for a 5 month contract.
Karen showed her versatility, performing in over 30 productions during her tenure as (amongst other things) a Russian seagull, an Australian PE teacher, a pirate, Katherine Whitehorn, a professor of robotics and a ghost.
Other radio productions included Neil Gaiman's Stardust; Marathon Man; Rebus: Fleshmarket Close; 4:4; Wild Things; Watership Down; Blood, Sex & Money: Apocalypse; Cooking in a Bedsitter; Incredible Women; The Mysteries of Udolpho; Northanger Abbey; The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde; Inappropriate Relationships; Romance is Dead and Somewhere in England. Additional radio comedy performances include The Now Show; The John Moloney Show; What Does the K Stand For; It's Jocelyn and Rich Hall's US Election Breakdown.
Since leaving the BBC Radio Drama Company, Karen has recorded a number of additional audio roles, including as Sgt Pettigrew in the audio movie Alien: River of Pain, directed by Dirk Maggs for Audible UK. She is best known for her performances as Warder Anne Bishius in Daniel Maier's surreal comedy Life on Egg and as the redoubtable Florrie Featherstonehaugh in Tommies, both on Radio 4.
Karen also performs as a member of Q Fusion Improv, as part of the sketch comedy shows Man vs. Woman and Alchemy and in her spare time Karen is quite literally a singer in a band with classic rock’n'roll party band The Sentinels.
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