Nina Margarita Conti (born 25 August 1973) is a British actress, comedian, and ventriloquist. Early life Conti was born and raised in Hampstead, London, the daughter of actors Tom Conti and Kara Wilson. She attended King Alfred School, London, and graduated with a first class honours degree in philosophy from the University of East Anglia in 1995. She trained with Ken Campbell. Acting Conti has worked as an actress since 1996. She appeared in several roles in Daisy and Ken Campbell's 1999 and 2000 productions of The Warp, Neil Oram's 24-hour play cycle, and was a member of the RSC's 2000/01 company in Stratford and London. Ken Campbell subsequently devised the ventriloquist play Let Me Out!!! for her, which she took to the 2001 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She appeared as half-Afghan camera operator Azadine in Henry Naylor's play Finding Bin Laden at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2005, Conti voiced Latrina in the animated comedy series Bromwell High. Conti has appeared in several television shows, including Black Books, Holby City, Single, and the Australian panel show Spicks and Specks. Her radio performances include characters in Radio 4 comedy Clare in the Community. Conti and Monkey portrayed a morning weather team on the fictional "Wake Up L.A." in Christopher Guest's 2006 film, For Your Consideration. Conti was awarded joint "Best Performance" in the Maverick Movie Awards for Her Master's Voice, a 2012 film. In 2013, she portrayed the part of Bea Chadwick in Christopher Guest's HBO mockumentary Family Tree. Stand-up comedy In 2002, Conti won the BBC New Comedy Awards, came second in the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year and came third in "Laughing Horse New Act of the Year" competitions. Conti regularly headlines at London comedy venues and has appeared at The Comedy Store. She took her first solo full-length show, Complete and Utter Conti, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007, where she introduced some new characters as well as performing familiar routines. In 2008 she won the Barry Award for this show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, tying with Kristen Schaal. At the Melbourne Comedy Festival 2010 she debuted a new puppet, an elderly woman who is her "Granny". Conti and Granny appeared in episode six of the ninth series of the BBC comedy quiz show QI in 2011. On that episode, Conti noted that she inherited the Granny puppet from Ken Campbell on