Colorful checkered jumpsuit, fuchsia mouth and sugared pink hair. With her slight English accent, Tatty Macleod, 35, captivated the set of “Quotidien” during her appearance on September 19. When the comedian with 560,000 subscribers on the networks mentions Camors, you have to watch the video a second time. Yes, the bubbly 35-year-old Franco-British grew up in this town of just over 3,000 people, in the center of Morbihan. “I was born in Zimbabwe. I arrived here at four years old, with my British mother and my three sisters,” rewinds the thirty-year-old, a cup of hot tea in hand. Sitting in the kitchen of the house where she grew up, she smiles: “When I entered the drama academy in London, my voice was almost too high from shouting in that big house.”
High school in Auray and first evenings in Carnac
Tatty returns regularly to Camors, where her mother still lives. As a child, she first attended a school which no longer exists today. “The teacher was also the director,” she laughs. There must have been around ten students.” She learned French at school. English stays at home. “When you are a child, you are not aware of having to speak another language. You try to communicate, and then, one day, it works.” Tatty doesn’t lose her big smile. “We were considered English when we arrived here, but it was never bad. I had a very happy childhood.”
As a teenager, she attended Sainte-Anne d’Auray (56), then at the Benjamin Franklin high school in Auray (56). “I have kept friends from that time, whom I still see,” she slips. She remembers her first evenings at the Les Chandelles nightclub or the Whiskey Club. And then, at 18, she flew to the United Kingdom. “I wanted to see something else. I grew up being “the English girl”, even though I didn’t know my country.”
From law to the drama conservatory
Tatty is starting a law degree, but dreams of becoming an actress. “At the time, I didn’t yet know that comedian was a profession. I had always been the class clown. I wanted to become a lawyer to plead, with the wig, the long dress… There is something very theatrical in pleading.” She joined the Central School of Speech and Drama in London for her master’s degree.
On stand-up stages in the evening, Tatty does odd jobs during the day. Receptionist, waitress, day guide in Paris… “I was hired because I spoke French, but I discovered the Eiffel Tower or the Sacré-Cœur at the same time as the tourists! », she laughs. The Franco-British took seven years before becoming a professional artist. “It’s cute to struggle when you’re 23, but at 30… You can’t say that I had the life of a glam artist! It takes time to make yourself known, especially for a girl with no connections. I had everything to discover.” Tired of waiting for phone calls from agents, the actress, fed up with the sketches of “A Guy, a Girl” and Jamel Debbouze, begins to write her texts and perform.
A “double culture” that resonates
Her short videos, where she plays with clichés inherited from her dual Franco-British culture, are a hit on the networks. “That’s what got me to this point, I have a lot of gratitude.” She is followed by 351,000 subscribers on Instagram, 210,000 on Tik Tok. His first tour with his show, “Fugue”, sold out in the United Kingdom. In Paris, in May, the three dates are soon sold out. “This dual culture that I talk about on stage resonates with a lot of people,” summarizes the woman who says she belongs to a third culture, “straddling the two.” Like her: one foot in London, the other in Camors.
Tatty does not have French nationality. “So, everything has become complicated since Brexit.” To return to France whenever she wants, she applied for a “talent passport” visa. After Paris, in the spring, the comedian likes to dream of playing in Brittany. Why not Auray, a few kilometers from Camors. “Here I am at home.”
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