Gretel Killeen

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Broadcaster, author, MC & host


Gretel Killeen has worked as a stand-up comic, an advertising voice-artist and a radio and television host. She has written more than twenty books and in 2001 she received a MO Award for Best female Comic. While a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF she wrote and directed a television documentary about AIDS orphans in Zambia, and TV commercials to raise awareness of poverty and unexploded ordnance in Laos. She's en¬tertained troops in the Middle East and Solomon Islands, she's fished for piranha in Bolivia, survived a motorbike accident in Thailand, squatted in a Florentine hotel, escaped drug dealers in Morocco, dropped out of uni twice, hosted Big Brother and raised her two children as a single mum.
With her well known warmth, wisdom and wicked wit, Gretel Killeen is the perfect MC or host for an awards night or corporate event.

About Gretel Killeen:

In her earlier years Gretel had the hallmarks of an academic - school captain, a member of the Australian Debating Team - however she dropped out of law school after six weeks, when she couldn't find the exam room. Six months later she accidentally started a career as a stand-up comic when she performed a serious poem and the audience laughed.

Since then Gretel has worked continuously in print, television and radio, regularly making Australian audiences laugh. For several years she wrote a popular weekly column in The Australian Magazine and this collection became the bestseller, Visible Panty Line. Gretel is also the author of numerous bestselling books for younger readers, including the My Sister Series, My Life is a Toilet and My Life is a Wedgie. Her books written for adults include the hilarious memoire, The Night My Bum Dropped, published in 2009. In 2010 she released the teen romance, I Love You Zelda Bloo.

On television Gretel has been a panelist on Good News Week, and host of the 2009 Logie Awards. She was the host of Big Brother for every series from 2001 until 2007. Gretel has featured as a ‘Beauty’ on Beauty and the Beast and appeared as Ray Martin’s wife for three years in the cult classic A Town Like Dallas (The Midday Show).

Gretel Killeen, along with Daniel MacPherson, hosted the 2006 New Year's Eve Countdown Live on the Ten Network. She hosted the Australia Day-eve celebrations on 25 January 2006 and was also the host of Ten's coverage of the Australia Day ceremony in 2007. Known as the ‘Queen’ of voice-overs for many years, Gretel also shared a ratings-winning breakfast show on Austereo. In 2008, Gretel Killeen narrated The Rocky Horror Picture Show stage musical in Sydney.