Lynne Parker

As an award winning producer, Lynne has combined her interests in entertainment and charity with her experience in media and marketing. She came up with the idea of Funny Women after years of working with entertainment, fashion, beauty and health brands largely aimed at a female market.

Originally trained as a journalist Lynne spent the first years of her career working in women’s magazines for publishing groups Nat Mags and IPC writing about fashion and beauty topics.

“If you’ve seen the film, the Devil Wears Prada, this gives you some idea of what I went through when I started my career!” explains Lynne. “I even knocked my teeth out when I worked on a particularly posh publication – I’m sure I was the inspiration for Ugly Betty!”

After editing a fashion trade magazine Lynne went on to set up a lingerie boutique where she gained even further insight into the psyche of women. “Your underwear says a lot about you,” she explains. “I learned so much from watching women purchasing their most intimate items of clothing. Very revealing.”

When Lynne sold the shop she began a new phase of her career in public relations and marketing along with stints as a TV presenter for cable television channel, Living. Lynne eventually set up her own PR consultancy and managed many successful promotional campaigns for well known brands like Asda, W H Smith, The Prince’s Trust, Thames Water, Hyundai Car UK, Pepe Jeans, Umbro, Nike, Avon, Almay, Innoxa and Yardley.

“Funny Women grew out of a creative idea for a client who went on to tell me that women aren't funny,” explains Lynne. ‘I am enjoying my 13th year of proving him wrong! I am proud to be the founder of the UK’s leading female comedy community.”

The first Funny Women event took place in 2002 and since then Lynne has produced 12 Funny Women Awards, numerous charity events, 11 runs of Funny Women at the world famous Edinburgh Fringe, and Funny Women runs shows and workshops all over the UK. Funny Women has also raised thousands of pounds and awareness for a range of female related causes and charities under the banner of ‘laughing about life to help and heal women’.

Funny Women has attracted sponsorship from major brands including Babycham, Lee Cooper, Sheilas’ Wheels, British Airways, Avon, Moschino, Nivea, Boots, RBS and NatWest. Funny Women has been working with Benefit Cosmetics for the last three years in a relationship that is expanding and developing the brand into new and exciting areas.

Lynne launched Funny Women into the business arena five years ago which offers a training and coaching programme for women based on stand up techniques to build self confidence and present with humour. This has proven to be a successful formula helping the women in both their professional and personal lives.

“I am passionate about giving women their voice and I’ve seen how learning to use humour helps women to become more assertive and confident. We started running comedy workshops for women alongside the Funny Women Awards and our business activity gives us the opportunity to extend these techniques to women from all walks of life.”

Lynne’s commitment to her works has been recognised with two prestigious Awards at the NatWest Ladies at E11even Business Awards. The first was the Inspirational Woman Award, for overcoming personal hurdles and challenges in business, and the second was the NatWest Award for outstanding business success.

Lynne was nominated as one of One Hundred Unseen Powerful Women ‘who change the world’ in recognition of her outstanding work in the area of arts and media. The list was created by the charity, One World Action to celebrate its work promoting women’s leadership around the world. She was also the recipient of the Women's Champion award in from the Achievers Academy for Women in 2012.

Lynne is married to composer and music producer, Richard Lightman, and has two grown up (ish) children, aged 26 and 22. She had a long association with the Certified Institute of Public Relations and was the president of Women in PR from 2001-2003. Lynne is an active member of Women in Journalism, Women in Film and TV, and a partner in the government’s Women’s Engagement Programme.

Lynne regularly appears on television and radio, writes and comments in national newspapers and is working on a book based on her experiences of working in comedy.

If you would like to speak to Lynne or find out more about the Funny Women Awards, Workshops or business events, please call 020 8948 4444 or email info@funnywomen.com . You can also visit www.funnywomen.com and www.lynneparker.co.uk.