Chewin' the Fat

Dunbar began her career as a DJ and karaoke host before she attended The Comedy Unit's open auditions in 1997 where she was cast in the BBC Scotland comedy sketch show Chewin' the Fat. Karen spoke about how she gave up a lucrative income to work fulltime on the show, but after Series 1 aired she struggled financially.^[3]

The Karen Dunbar Show

She starred in The Karen Dunbar Show, which received two Golden Rose nominations for Best Comedy Show and Karen herself two personal nominations for Best Comedy Performance.^[4]

Karen has presented BBC Radio Scotland series such as Karen Dunbar’s Beautiful Sunday and Karen’s Summer Supplement, as well as being Team Captain on the quiz show Step Back in Time.^[4]

Theatre

In Christmas 2007, Dunbar made her first appearance in pantomime, at the King's Theatre in Glasgow, playing Nanny Begood in Sleeping Beauty. Further pantomime roles include the dual role of the Good Fairy and the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella (2008–09) and Widow Twankey in Aladdin (2009–10). She appeared as a critic on Britain's Got More Talent on 27 May 2008. She played the fairy godmother in Cinderella (2012–13) and appeared in the 2013–14 season as a new character, the Slave of the Ring, in Aladdin.

As a comedy actress, she has also tackled serious roles, most including a performance in the poetic monologue A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle adapted by Denise Mina from Hugh MacDiarmid's poem of the same name. In between 2012 and 2016, she was featured in Phyllida Lloyd's acclaimed trilogy of all-female Shakespeare plays at the Donmar Warehouse, playing Casca in Julius Caesar, Bardolph/Vernon in Henry IV and Trinculo in The Tempest.

Happy Hollidays

In 2009, Dunbar starred in a six-part series of the Scottish comedy Happy Hollidays. She played the role of Arme Gonnerssen in M.I. High in 2009.

Recent work

In 2014, she was lead compère at the XX Commonwealth Games opening ceremony held in Glasgow alongside John Barrowman and Des Clarke. Barrowman and Dunbar sang and performed a showcase of Scottish culture, inventions and places during the broadcast, which reached a global audience of 1.5 billion people.^[5] In October 2017 Dunbar appeared in BBC Scotland's River City for a one-off appearance. She played the part of Francesca Simpson, estranged wife of Pete Galloway (played by Andy Gray).

In 2019, Dunbar appeared in the tours Calendar Girls and Still Game Live: The Final Farewell.

Television

Film