Jessica Karlén

Jessica Eva Elvira Karlen, born 2 June 1988 in Kisa, is a Swedish writer and comedian. She grew up in Kisa, in Kinda Municipality, where she took part in improvisational theatre, revue and local heritage plays.

At nineteen she moved to Stockholm, studied rhetoric at Stockholm University and began performing stand-up comedy. She later moved to Lund, studied physics at Lund University and continued to work in theatre. Karlen became known to the wider public in 2011 through her appearance on the seventh season of the Swedish version of Big Brother.

In 2012 she contributed a text to the anthology Jag bombade: scener ur ett staauppliv, published by Ekerlids forlag. The following year she produced nine episodes of the podcast JessicasKK, interviewing figures from Swedish media and entertainment such as Anton Glanzelius, Pontus Strobaek, Aron Flam and Simon Svensson, a project that closed with a show at Kulturhuset and an accompanying exhibition in April 2013. That same year, together with Charlotte Signell, she wrote and performed the Sveriges Radio programme Det ar bara en psykos as part of the Humorhimlen Lab strand.

She went on to contribute texts to two further anthologies: Av oss blev det aldrig nagra riktiga damer in 2014, published by Sjosala forlag, and Granser in 2016, published by Dynamo - Mojligheternas forlag.