Songwriter, science presenter and ‘Voice of an Angle’ Helen Arney regularly features on TV, Radio and in theatres across the world with her unique mix of stand-up, songs and science. You might have seen her explaining physics while riding a rollercoaster for BBC2 Coast, electrifying Sandi Toksvig on QI, singing the periodic table on Channel 4, smashing a wine glass with the power of her voice live on Blue Peter or touring with science comedy phenomenon Festival of the Spoken Nerd. She’s also the voice of the The Elements on Amazon Alexa.
Helen is currently working on several full-length musical theatre projects about teenage jiu jitsu suffragettes, early women astronauts, Girton College Fire Brigade and everything Darwin got wrong about the female of the species. She has a Physics degree from Imperial College London, a Masters with Distinction in Playwriting and Screenwriting from City University, and has filled several notebooks with rhymes for Uranus (none of which are printable here).
Helen’s show “Almost Astronauts” – created with Jenna Dyckhoff – was selected for the first Overture Artist Development Programme, after being supported with a week of R&D at Leeds Conservatoire and a grant from the MMD Jane Goodman Writing Fund. In 2023 the title song from her show “The Unstoppable Letty Pegg” – based on Iszi Lawrence’s novel and written with composer James Hughes – was a finalist in the Stiles + Drew Best New Song Prize and is currently being developed in collaboration with National Youth Music Theatre. With Jenni Pinnock and Brian Mackenwells she is developing “The First Cambridge All-Ladies Fire Brigade” as part of the inaugural Birmingham Hippodrome Musical Theatre Writer’s Group and Lincoln Arts Centre’s “Innovate Artist” cohort 2025-26, along with support from the British Society for the History of Science. Together with Lucy Armstrong, Helen wrote a new festive song for Glyndebourne Opera House and Create Music’s “One Voice” project, sung by 1,200 children across Sussex. Helen is a member of Mercury Musical Development’s Advanced Writer’s Lab, the Royal Opera House “Engender” mentoring programme, and a graduate of Book, Music and Lyrics workshops in London. In August 2025 she was awarded an Arts Council “Develop Your Creative Practice” grant to develop bookwriting skills for large cast, young company new British musicals.
Press quotes
**** “Lots of distinctive laughs… Classy stuff” — Chortle
***** “Hugely entertaining, clever comedy at its best” — The Skinny
“An all-round smartypants… the confidence and clarity of Arney’s performance is exceptional” — The Telegraph
**** “Charming, witty, warm… great one-liners” — The List
“Champion of musical whims” — Evening Standard
TV, Radio, Presenting and Corporate Work
Helen presents across science and music productions on TV, radio and online, including BBC2 Coast, Great Inventions, Outrageous Acts of Science on Discovery Channel and as one third of Festival of the Spoken Nerd on stage and in “A Podcast Of Unnecessary Detail”. She wrote and presented the revisionist science history series “Did The Victorians Ruin The World?” for BBC Radio 4 with sister Dr Kat Arney, and two series of “Domestic Science” with the Spoken Nerds. Helen’s voice features in a collaborative artwork created by artist Yu-Chen Wang at CERN, and she is the voice of the Periodic Table on Amazon Alexa in North America. Helen is proud to have represented Imperial College on Christmas University Challenge on BBC2 in December 2023, and in is excited to have joined the music presenting team for Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s Digital Concerts for their 2025-26 season.
Helen also hosts live events of every kind, from science-themed classical concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to the annual international celebration of women in science and engineering, Ada Lovelace Day – Live!
As a corporate entertainer, Helen has performed under a dinosaur for Europe’s science ministers, next to a Saturn V rocket in Huntsville, Alabama for ThinkerCon, on stage with Commander Chris Hadfield at the Royal Albert Hall, in Las Vegas for The Amaz!ng Meeting, and has sung a Googleplex at Google’s head office in California – to name a few memorable moments.
She is also a regular feature at conferences and events for the United Nations, CERN, Google, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, British Science Association, WIRED, NIHR, TEDxLSE, Institute of Physics, National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Royal Institution, Royal Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Linnean Society of London, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Natural History Museum, SQLBits Conference, QED Conference, University College London, Imperial College, University of Glasgow and Wellcome Genome Campus.
Live Comedy
As well as her solo shows and Festival of the Spoken Nerd, Helen performs sets at comedy clubs across the UK. She’s appeared at the Hammersmith Apollo, Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre, Underbelly Festival, and on Comedy Central in “Stewart Lee’s Alternative Comedy Experience”. Music festival appearances include Big Feastival, Latitude, End Of The Road, Green Man, Greenbelt, Bestival and Secret Garden Party, and science festivals in Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Cheltenham and the British Science Festival. She also curates science comedy nights everywhere from the Oxford Literary Festival and Royal Institution to Norwegian Science Week in Trondheim and Oslo and the National Astronomy Meeting.
Other Stuff
Helen has a degree in Physics from Imperial College London and a Masters with Distinction in Playwriting and Screenwriting from City University, where she won the year prize for her final screenplay. Helen’s first short play ‘Evolution Disco’ was performed at the Natural History Museum and the Spoken Nerd’s first illustrated book ‘The Element In The Room‘ was co-written with Steve Mould and published by Cassell. She now writes musical theatre shows about – among other things – teenage jiu jitsu suffragettes, early women astronauts, Girton College Fire Brigade and everything Darwin got wrong about the female of the species. The podcast she has infrequently recorded with Matt Parker and Steve Mould since 2019 – “A Podcast Of Unnecessary Detail” – has recently soared past 1 million listens.
Also a classically trained musician, she holds grade 8 in both piano and oboe. After graduating, Helen joined the start-up team that founded UK charity Teach First, recruiting some of the very first science and maths teachers to join their graduate programme. She has also worked professionally as a tour guide at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Helen lives in London with her husband, two kids and, yes, she is the youngest sister of Dr Kat Arney.