Barunka O'Shaughnessy and Lucy Montgomery met at university where they both wrote and performed but only really became proper friends afterwards. They also both pursued a career in TV production but soon realised it was too much like hard work.

Lucy wanted to perform so she went to Central School of Speech and Drama. She'd missed the deadline for the acting course and did Musical Theatre instead.

Barunka wanted to be a comedy writer like all the boys she knew and even got as far as writing for people like Matt Lucas, John Thomson, Sally Phillips and Jonathan Ross. But without a fat beardy comedy partner, like all the boys have, she ran out of steam. Which is where Lucy stepped in...

Bored of parts like 'singing tightrope walker whose father falls off the high wire and dies', Lucy decided to create her own vehicle. Barunka, still reeling from having just missed a first in her Classics degree (by one percent), suggested a show about the Romans. Lucy wanted to dress up as a gladiator so they set about writing something that became Gladiatrix, She-Wolf of Rome.

They wrote a part for a token male and offered it to James Bachman as Barunka had gone out with him for three and a half years and felt she owed him one. All they needed was a director.

Their ideal candidate was Cal McCrystal but Barunka was too scared to call him. Fortunately, Lucy wasn't. He read the script, liked it a lot and agreed to do the show. Also, Mel & Sue had cancelled their tour due to a pregnancy so he had nothing else to do.

The show was first performed at the Soho Theatre Studio in October 2001. As everyone enjoyed doing it so much, they decided to take Gladiatrix to Edinburgh in 2002 and officially became Population: 3.

The Edinburgh Fringe run was a huge success, with the show selling out and getting some great reviews, and touring around the country, as well as appearing at the Theatre European Regions festival in the Czech Republic for The British Council.

Their second show, The Wicker Woman, was devised in rehearsal with director David Sant from clown trio Peepolykus, and was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2003 where it sold-out and received fantastic reviews across the board. The show subsequently played for a sell-out two week run at the Jermyn Street Theatre in The West End, again receiving excellent reviews from the London and National Press, before embarking on tour in the Spring of 2004.

As a result of the success of The Wicker Woman, Population: 3 are currently developing a number of projects for TV and radio with independent production companies.

This year, Population: 3 return to the Edinburgh Fringe, again in collaboration with David Sant, with their latest show The Elephant Woman, which plays at the Pleasance from the 4th to the 31st of August. There will also be a ten-show run of The Wicker Woman from the 20th to the 29th, which continues on tour in the Autumn of 2004.