Athena Kugblenu

Athena Kugblenu is a writer, comedian, podcaster and voiceover artist. She’s known for her frequent radio appearances – THE NOW SHOW, NEWS QUIZ, DMS ARE OPEN, BREAKING THE NEWS, YOU’RE DEAD TO ME – and has written and appeared on TV shows including MOCK THE WEEK, POINTLESS, HOUSE OF GAMES, SORRY I DIDN’T KNOW, COMEDY CENTRAL LIVE and THE LAST LEG. She’s a prolific writer of comedy and kids’ television with credits including HORRIBLE HISTORIES, SUPERTATO, JO JO and GRAN GRAN, ODD SQUAD, CRONGTON, WAFFLE’S AFTER SCHOOL CLUB, THE RUSSELL HOWARD HOUR, NEW WORLD ORDER, THE LAST LEG and newly launched comedy history show on radio for DEAD FUNNY HISTORY. She performs stand up everywhere and during the summer can be found messing around on comedy stages at festivals like GREEN MAN, LATITUDE, ALSO FEST and DEERSHED. Her stand up comedy special MAGNIFYING CLASS is available on BBC sounds as is CANCEL CULTURE – a comedy series written and performed for Radio 4. She writes and co-hosts the multiple award winning podcast BUST OR TRUST and hosts her own podcast PROCRASTINATE, where she talks to creatives and other interesting people about how they get stuff done. It has been rumoured that this podcast is an elaborate form of procrastination but let’s not dwell on that. Last year, her debut theatre production, in collaboration with Upswing Aerial, SHOWDOWN, had a 6 month run in Berlin’s Chameleon Theatre. It toured the UK in summer 2025 to ecstatic audiences and rave reviews. She brought comedy to TED via her stand up x TED Talk, THE FINE ART OF FIBBING which is available now. She has written two books for children: HISTORY’S MOST EPIC FIBS and HISTORY’S MOST EPIC FAILS giving her a reason to take her astute, intelligent comedy to HAY FESTIVAL, BRIGHTON BOOK FESTIVAL, BATH CHILDREN’S LITERATURE FESTIVAL, EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL, CHELTENHAM BOOK FESTIVAL and more. Both books are available in paperback and audio formats now.