Jen Brister begun her comedy career when she undertook a comedy course at university, performing her first gig in 1996. She then went on to perform at the Mardi Gras festival in Sydney but returned to Britain shortly after. In 2000, she entered the BBC Comedy Awards but buckled after reaching the semi-finals.
She reached the semi-finals of the Avalon Comedy Search before reaching the finals of the Wilkinson Sword Comedy competition in 2002. In 2003, Brister and a few friends teamed up to create sketch group, Loose Connection. The group disbanded after two years, but Brister continued to write and ended up performing her one-woman show Me, My Mum & I. She has presented numerous shows for BBC 6 Music and has performed at Edinburgh a number of times.