Introducing... Stand up Ninia Benjamin

She didn't have her hair styled in a salon until she was 26, and yet she breezed her way to the crown of Celebrity Scissorhands 2007, where she and a host of celebrity names cut and crimped their way through two weeks in a televised salon, raising thousands of pounds for Children in Need.

Now one of the UK circuit's hottest female stand-ups, who seemingly raises the roof whenever she performs live, Benjamin worked her way up from "a job at Woolies" before being catapulted to stardom in the BBC3 hit comedy show, 3 Non-Blondes.

"A friend and I were talking about comedy and I told him that I had written a set, and would he like to hear it," she says when questioned about how she first broke into stand-up.

"He laughed and said 'If I get you a gig, will you do it' and I said 'Ok, then'.

"I didn't commit. Then I got made redundant and said, 'Let me give it a go'," she adds.

She's glad she did.

With a wealth of TV exposure in a variety of roles – as presenter (Gory Greek Gods, BBC3); studio guest (Big Brother's Big Mouth, C4); actress (Twisted Tales, BBC3); and reality TV star (Cirque De Celebrity, Sky One) – Benjamin is already a familiar face to many.

But while her popularity on TV continues to soar, her stand-up remains at top-notch level – as audiences in the Capital will discover during her two-night residency at Jongleurs tonight and tomorrow.

Benjamin is a regular headliner at all the top venues across the UK, such as Jongleurs, Up the Creek, The Banana Cabaret, Glee Clubs and Bound & Gagged. She has also spread her talents overseas and has enjoyed a successful run at the Cape Town Comedy Festival in South Africa in addition to appearances at the Big Night of Comedy festival in Holland.

But her talents don't stop there. She has significant experience as an actress and has starred in a wide variety of plays such as a stage production of Malcolm X and A Yorkshire Tragedy. She also played the lead role in the record-breaking run of Waiting to Inhale at the Theatre Royal and Woman on Top at the Hackney Empire.

Getting so far in the male-dominated world of stand-up is a decent achievement in itself, but Benjamin has her own ideas as to why there are so few women comedians and seemingly even fewer black women comedians.

"Maybe because it is such a lonely life and you have to do a lot of travelling late at night, often missing last trains, so if you don't drive then it can be really difficult," she offers. "There are quite a few black women comics, they are just not on the mainstream circuit."

Ninia Benjamin, Jongleurs, Omni Centre, Greenside Place, tonight and tomorrow, 8.15pm, 14 (11), 0870-787 0707