Sketch show debut for Cork actress

A CORK-BORN comedy actress will hit TV screens around the world tonight in a groundbreaking new sketch show.

Jessica Regan stars in No Signal, which will be broadcast by the F/X channel on Sky, which brought comedy classics like Family Guy and American Dad to a popular audience.

The Youghal native plays multiple characters, including a shopping network sales woman selling a “silence machine” and a manic late night phone-quiz host.

Later in the year, she will appear in an episode of Silent Witness where she stars alongside Emilia Fox as troubled Police Constable Justine Gould.

A leading independent production company has also picked up a pilot she filmed with Sir Ian McKellen.

The academy is a “mockumentary” set in a failing drama school and is due to begin filming in September of this year.

Jessica Regan graduated from the RADA in July 2007.

However, her professional career began long before she had completed her training with a part in a comedy pilot Ladies and Gentlemen from the makers of Peep Show — Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong.

Bain and Armstrong later cast her in the opening episode of Peep Show’s fifth series as a classically trained actress.

In 2008, Jessica appeared in several episodes of surreal BBC3 CGI sketch show The Wrong Door.

She followed this up with an appearance on Eastenders as Irish solicitor Laura Stewart.

* No Signal begins on the F/X channel on Sky at 10pm tonight.