Viv Groskop

Viv Groskop is a writer, broadcaster, speaker, and stand-up comedian.

Viv’s book How To Own The Room: Women And The Art of Brilliant Speaking is all about amazing women who are brilliant speakers. How to Own the Room is inspiring and practical, and aimed exclusively, with no apologies, at women. Believe it or not it was the very first book about public speaking focused solely on women!

In mid-2020 turned her attention to communicating with each other in a time of remote working with her talk How to Own the Zoom! She brings to WFH, working from home, the wisdom of How to Own The Room. Viv’s latest book Happy High Status: How to Be Effortlessly Confident was published in June 2023.

Viv has also written extensively on arts and culture for the Guardian and Observer for the past 15 years as well as for the Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent and Financial Times. She appears regularly on television (Sky News, BBC Breakfast) and is a frequent guest on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday Review, Front Row, Woman’s Hour, Any Questions and Quote Unquote. She was the Artistic Director of the Independent Bath Literature Festival, Red magazine’s literary editor and a contributing editor to the Russian edition of Vogue magazine.

Viv took to stand-up comedy in her late thirties, reaching the finals of Funny Women and winning Spontaneity Shop’s Maestro Impro in 2012. The following year she published a bestselling critically-acclaimed memoir, I Laughed, I Cried (Orion), which turned into a five-star Edinburgh show (‘absolutely hilarious’ — Jennifer Saunders).

She has performed with Sandi Toksvig, Mark Watson, Milton Jones, Tim Vine, Michael McIntyre and Stephen Fry.

She regularly hosts corporate events (Barclays, London College of Fashion, Intelligence Squared, Society of Authors, Mumsnet Academy, BritMums, 5X15, Editorial Intelligence) and is available to MC and chair debates. Viv has appeared at dozens of literary festivals as a solo performer, interviewer and panelist and is a regular judge on cult show Literary Death Match. Viv has been described as ‘crazy, clever, brave and kind’ (Caroline Quentin), ‘a must-see, leaving you all warm and fuzzy inside’ (Broadway Baby) and ‘frankly psychotic’ (Mail on Sunday). Jo Brand says: ‘Viv is brilliant. But I still quite like Billy Connolly’.

Contact Viv Groskop via a Specialist Speakers agent for both live in-person or virtual speaking engagements.