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Arabella Weir (born 6 December 1957 in San Francisco, California) played an alternative, alcohol-addled female version of the Doctor in Exile, part of the Doctor Who Unbound series of audio adventures produced by Big Finish Productions. Joanna Lumley and she are the only two women to play the Doctor in a BBC-licensed production. Weir is to date the only American-born actor to portray the character - although she is not considered an American.
She also played Billis in the 2011 Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.
The daughter of former British ambassador Sir Michael Weir, she is a famous for her roles in The Fast Show (alongside Mark Williams) and books including Does My Bum Look Big In This? (a catchphrase of one of her characters in the show) and Onwards and Upwards, first published in 1999. Arabella also writes articles for The Guardian periodically. These articles, although mainly about recent events, commonly include details regarding Arabella's life and the things that she considers to be pestiferous.
Weir wrote and starred in the 2003 comedy series Posh Nosh co-starring Richard E. Grant, who played the Tenth Doctor in TV: The Curse of Fatal Death and the Ninth Doctor in WC: Scream of the Shalka. David Tennant made a few guest appearances in that series as well. She contributes to the popular BBC2 comedy series, Grumpy Old Women.
She was a regular cast member of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series Smelling of Roses and provides the voice for the puppet duck character Hana in the forthcoming children's TV show Hana's Helpline.
She is married to Dr Jeremy Norton, and they have two children. David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor, is a long-term friend of Weir's, and is godfather to their youngest child. He and Weir met in 1994 when they acted in the Scottish TV series Takin' Over the Asylum together, and when Tennant moved to London the following year, he moved into Weir's house, being her lodger for several years.