Comedy star enters Celebrity Big Brother house

Comedy star Donna Preston has been unveiled as one of the contestants in this year’s Celebrity Big Brother.

The 38-year-old actress has appeal in several Neil Gaiman projects, starred as Joel Dommett’s titular sidekick in the ITV2 game show Hey Tracey! and helped Michael McIntyre play pranks on his Big Show.

With sometime double-act partner Verona Rose, Preston had some early screen time on the 2019 E4 reality show Pants on Fire  and also wrote and starred in the digital series Fully Blown for BBC Three's Comedy Threesomes.

York-born Preston has also been part of the ensembles on The Mash Report, ITV2’s The Stand Up Sketch Show  and BBC Three's Famalam and appeared on panel shows such as 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Celebability, and ITV2’s physical physical show Apocalypse Wow  (which The Guardian’s TV reviewer called ‘the worst thing you will ever see with your eyes’)

In 2021,The Sun reported claims Preston had bullied Christine McGuinness, reducing her tor tears, when playing  Dommett’s virtual assistant on Hey Tracey!

In her autobiography, the model said an unnamed star told her: ‘I’ve got no fucking idea who you are. I don’t care who you are, I don’t know who you think you are, and I don’t know what you’re even doing here. You are really beautiful, aren’t you? But there’s nothing else.’

McGuinness said Preston later apologised to her via social media. The actress has never commented on the story, but Dommett has said: ‘‘At the End of the day it is a comedy show. It was made in jest,’ adding that he hoped no one left the set unhappy.

In 2022, Preston appeared as Despair in Neil Gaiman's fantasy drama The Sandman, a role she reprised in Dead Boy Detectives last year.  She played brother-keeper Mrs Sandwich Gaiman’s Good Omens.

Her other acting credits include  Fat Pat in Catherine Tate's six-part Netflix mockumentary Hard Cell, Bev in the 2021 Inside No 9 episode Hurry Up And Wait and the CBBC comedy-drama Pickle Storm.

She has appeared on Gogglebox alongside Chris McCausland, having once been a panellist on his Radio 4 show You Heard It Here First.

Preston entered the 24th series of Celebrity Big Brother last night alongside Oscar-nominated actor Mickey Rourke EastEnders star Patsy Palmer, Love Island's Chris Hughes, former Tory MP Michael Fabricant, singer Chesney Hawkes, TV hosts Trisha Goddard and Angellica Bell, Olympic champion Daley Thompson, The Only Way Is Essex's Ella Rae Wise, Coronation Street actor  Jack P Shepherd, RuPaul's Drag Race winner Danny Beard and US singer and dancer JoJo Siwa.

Published: 7 Apr 2025