Jury

Lynne Parker founded Funny Women in 2002 in response to a comedy promoter who told her that 'women aren't funny'. She went on to create the Funny Women Awards in 2003 and the organisation is now an acclaimed non-profit community for women to build selfconfidence and develop their own distinctive voice. The annual Awards attract 2,000 female and non-binary entrants and nominees from around the world to compete in categories including performance, writing, film and content creation. It is unique in the entertainment world and Lynne describes Funny Women as her ‘life’s work’. She says, “I'm proud to provide a safe, diverse, creative platform and growing community that empowers women to perform, write and use humour in business and everyday life.” Through Lynne’s work with Funny Women she has become a renowned performance coach and mentor encouraging people in business and public life to 'Stand Up to Stand Out' and 'Have Fun at Work'. By borrowing techniques from the world of stand-up comedy, she has developed workshops and runs events under ‘sister’ brand HERlarious. In July 2025 Lynne was honoured with the esteemed British Citizen Award (BCA) at the Palace of Westminster in recognition of her outstanding contribution to society. Lynne received the coveted BCA Medal of Honour for Services to Arts (BCAa). Lynne has received several other awards for her work - Most Inspiring Businesswoman 2024 and Lifetime Achievement 2025 in the Best Business Women Awards and the 2024 Athena40 Leader of Social Impact Award. More recently she has been recognised by Wise100 as one of the TOP 100 Women in Social Enterprise 2025.