Biography
Ada Campe is an award-winning variety artiste, cabaret performer, comedian and magician with an eclectic portfolio. A member of The Magic Circle, Ada is also a sought after MC, cabaret performer, and comedian across the UK circuits. Her interactive, playful style appeals to audiences of all ages, and she regularly hosts and performs for Comedy Club 4 Kids as well as at corporate events, Museum Lates and festivals across the UK including the Wellcome Collection, Glastonbury Festival, Chichester Festival Theatre, the V&A, The Magic Circle, the World Burlesque Games, Laugh Out Proud, and many Pride celebrations.
In 2018 she won the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year Show (NATYS), and the Leicester Square Theatre Old Comedian of the Year competition. A year later she took the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by storm with Ada Campe and the Psychic Duck, which had rave reviews and a sold-out run. Post-pandemic Ada returned to Edinburgh in 2022 with her show Too Little Too Soon about queer family histories and amphibian water ballets, and in 2023 she had another successful run at The Stand’s New Town Theatre with the nautical themed Naval Gazing, returning to The Stand in 2024 with her show Big Duck Energy which was recommended in The Telegraph’s Top Ten Comedies to see at the Edinburgh Fringe.
In 2023 Ada was nominated for Best Newcomer in the UK Pantomime Awards for her portrayal of baddie Queen Rat in Dick Whittington at The Theatre Chipping Norton, and in 2024 won Best Panto Performance at the Offie Awards for her role as capricious magician The Sorcererer in the Royal Vauxhall Tavern’s adult panto Tossed. She returned to the RVT for the 2024/5 panto to play Granny La Hood in Wolfed, and has been nominated for a Fringe Theatre Award for her performance as The Inventorer in the 2025/6 RVT Panto Growled: Beauty and the Beast Continues.
Ada is a featured performer and interviewee in The Art of Drag: A Practical Performers’ Handbook (Routledge, 2025) and launched her new show Behind the Nightlight: Quaint Beasts in an Edwardian Nursery as part of the 2025 Being Human Festival.
Gag Reflex manage Ada’s live, corporate and festival bookings.
Please direct all acting enquiries for Ada Campe or her alter ego Naomi Paxton to lawrence@thegaltonagency.com
“Ada Campe made me laugh more than anyone on the circuit for years. Genius.”
"A real original and with irrepressible funny bones"
"The embodiment of variety entertainment"
"Magnetic presence and ticklish way with words"
"Mixes music-hall-esque eccentricity with 21st century queer feminist sensibilities"
"A mix of Tommy Cooper, Ethel Merman and one of Bertie Wooster's aunts"
Awards & Competitions
- Nominee - Adult Panto (Performance) - Fringe Theatre Awards - 2025
- Winner - Best Panto Performance - Offie Awards - 2024
- Finalist - Best Newcomer - UK Pantomime Awards - 2023
- Winner - Good Egg Awards - The Stand - 2019
- Winner - New Act of the Year/ The Hackney Empire New Act of the Year - 2018
- Winner - Leicester Square Theatre Old Comedian of the year - 2018
- Finalist - Best Show - Funny Women Awards - 2019
- Finalist - Best Variety Act - Chortle Awards - 2019
- Nominee - BBC New Comedy Award - 2018
Appearances & Credits
- Festivals:
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe
- Glastonbury Festival
- Latitude Festival
- Pride in London
- Mayven Festival
- Deershed Festival
- Primadonna Festival
- Being Human Festival
- Vault Festival
- Wychwood Festival
- Another Fine Fest
- Hexham Book Festival
- Henley Festival
- Repton Festival
- Stirling Pride
- Television & Radio :
- BBC Radio 4 Extra
- Money Box, BBC Radio 4
- BBC New Comedy Awards Heat, BBC Radio 4 Extra
- The Stand Comedy Club Podcast
- Queers On Podcast
- Comedy Club 4 Kids' Radio Nonsense
- The Mrs Barbara Nice & Friends Podcast
- Comedy Arcade with Vix Leyton
- Theatre and Pantomime:
- The Inventorer – Growled: Beauty and the Beast Continues – Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 2025-6
- Granny La Hood – Wolfed – Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 2024-5
- Herself - Bard Behaviour! - V&A South Kensington, 2024
- The Sorcererer - Tossed - Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 2023-4
- Herself - Pockets of Power! - Mayven Festival, 2023
- Queen Rat - Dick Whittington - The Theatre Chipping Norton, 2022
- Herself - Basil Brush Unleashed! - Norwich Playhouse, 2022
- Solo Shows:
- Behind the Nightlight - 2025
- The Magic of Ada Campe - 2025
- Big Duck Energy - 2024
- Ada's Fabulous Forebears - 2024
- Naval Gazing - 2023
- Too Little, Too Soon - 2022
- Unexpectedly Cheerful - 2021
- Ada Campe and the Psychic Duck - 2019
- Ada Campe's Love Shack - 2019
- Ada Campe's Grotto for Grownups - 2018
- Special events and Museum Lates:
- Host – Launch of The Nest, Chichester Festival Theatre – 2025
- Host – Pride Street Party, Culture Bid London – 2025
- Host – The Women Who Built Bristol launch event, Bristol Old Vic – 2025
- Host – World Burlesque Games – 2024-5
- Host – Gala Show: An Evening of Magic, Venue Cymru – 2024
- Host – Wandsworth Arts Festival launch event - 2024
- Host - Bard Behaviour! at the V&A Performance Festival - 2024
- Host - Spare Tyre Festival - 2023
- Host - The Magic Circle Awards - 2023
- Podium host - Pride in London March - 2023
- Host - Platinum Jubilee Picnic at Auckland Castle - 2022
- Museum Late: Fringe Fridays, Edinburgh Museum - 2019
- East End Entertainments, Museum of London Docklands - 2019
- Seeing is Believing, Wellcome Collection - 2019
- Host - Poodle Club St George's Day Special, Trafalgar Square - 2019