Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Star of stage and screen and Scots panto queen Elaine C Smith has created a new prize for female comedy actors at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
The £500 prize will be presented annually to a final-year drama student across RCS’s BA Acting, BA Performance and BA Musical Theatre degree programmes at the end of the academic year.
“Making people laugh is such a joyous thing,” said Elaine, who studied drama at RCS, when it was the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Elaine studied on the Diploma in Speech and Drama and graduated in 1978.
“In my time, comedy in many ways was seen as lesser. Everyone wanted to do the serious roles. And invariably, what I’ve found in my career is that people who can do comedy well can also do tragedy very well.
“It’s all about timing. Comedy touches people and, as the great Joni Mitchell says, laughing and crying, are the same release. There’s a real skill in comedy that’s innate.”
Elaine is one of the nation’s most familiar faces, from starring in smash TV sitcoms including City Lights, Rab C Nesbitt and Two Doors Down to her reign as one of the UK’s best-loved and longest-running panto dames.
She hopes the prize helps to empower women in comedy, particularly those from working-class backgrounds like her own while offering financial support during challenging times for the creative arts industry.
“The prize is me wanting to leave a trail of sweeties, saying to women, ‘here’s a route, come on’.
“In a time like this, when the creative arts are under attack, it’s a wee bit of money to help them along the way, to buy the books they need or to afford to go and see a few shows.
Star of stage and screen and Scots panto queen Elaine C Smith has created a new prize for female comedy actors at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
The £500 prize will be presented annually to a final-year drama student across RCS’s BA Acting, BA Performance and BA Musical Theatre degree programmes at the end of the academic year.
“Making people laugh is such a joyous thing,” said Elaine, who studied drama at RCS, when it was the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Elaine studied on the Diploma in Speech and Drama and graduated in 1978.
“In my time, comedy in many ways was seen as lesser. Everyone wanted to do the serious roles. And invariably, what I’ve found in my career is that people who can do comedy well can also do tragedy very well.
“It’s all about timing. Comedy touches people and, as the great Joni Mitchell says, laughing and crying, are the same release. There’s a real skill in comedy that’s innate.”
Elaine is one of the nation’s most familiar faces, from starring in smash TV sitcoms including City Lights, Rab C Nesbitt and Two Doors Down to her reign as one of the UK’s best-loved and longest-running panto dames.
She hopes the prize helps to empower women in comedy, particularly those from working-class backgrounds like her own while offering financial support during challenging times for the creative arts industry.
“The prize is me wanting to leave a trail of sweeties, saying to women, ‘here’s a route, come on’.
“In a time like this, when the creative arts are under attack, it’s a wee bit of money to help them along the way, to buy the books they need or to afford to go and see a few shows.
