Carol Cleveland was born in East Sheen, London, on January 13, 1943. Her parents met on a film set during the war and married ten days later, but it didn’t last, with Carol's father leaving home when she was three. Her mother Pat (a TV model who also appeared as an extra in many Python shows - including once as hospital patient with an axe in her head) later married an American Air Force officer called Cleve who took the family to live in America, spending a year in Philadelphia, before moving to San Antonio, Texas, where they would live for the next six and a half years. From there, the family moved to Pasadena, California with Carol attending Pasadena High School and John Marshall Junior High in Pasadena.

Carol showed an interest in performing from an early age, taking ballet lessons from the age of five before moving into amateur dramatics in her teens (one of her earliest roles - the title role in "Cinderella" she got when the actress playing the part broke her leg, allowing Carol, the lead dancer, to take it.) In fact an appearance on a television show at the age of 12 a young Carol Cleveland is seen confidently predicting she would be a movie star.

In 1960 Cleveland returned to England when her grandparents became ill, and a year later Carol entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, (alongside legendary crime author Lynda La Plant and actors Ian McShane and John Hurt). She also took on some modelling work (including as one of London's first Playboy Bunnies!). After graduation, with her American accent, Cleveland appeared in many of the cult ‘60s British television shows such as The Saint (with Roger Moore), The Avengers and Doctor at Large. She also had a small role in the film A Countess from Hong Kong, which starred Sophia Loren and was directed by screen legend Charlie Chaplin. Cleveland then began a series of jobs as a “glamour stooge” to Python comedy contemporaries such as Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. Then she was cast by John Howard Davies in a small, little regarded show called Monty Python’s Flying Circus…
  

Post Python
    
At the end of Flying Circus, Cleveland continued with her acting career, appearing on in many productions on both stage and screen. These include Moon Zero Two, Are You Being Served and Only Fools And Horses. 

When the Pythons resumed their lunacy in the movies, Cleveland came too, with cracking turns in And Now for Something Completely Different, as twins Dingo and Zoot in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Mrs. Gregory in Monty Python's Life of Brian, and in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (although most of her parts in that were sadly cut). She also appeared with the Pythons on their world tours, including the filmed show Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

Further stage and screen appearances followed, including pantomime, June in Too Much, Too Young, Miss Hannigan in both Annie and Annie: A Royal Adventure and a part in Tom Stoppard's Dirty Linen (during which she had an rather embarrassing incident. She was rehearsing a scene that called for her to climb onto a table and pull off her skirt. It was only when her fellow cast-members went suddenly silent that she realised she'd forgotten to put on any underwear that morning - oops!).

She has since toured with her one-woman shows Carol Cleveland Reveals All and Pom Poms Up! There have also been persistent rumours of a college tour, not unlike the ones by Graham Chapman. All this from the glamour stooge nicknamed “Carol Cleavage” by the Python team.