Fiona O'Loughlin

Fiona O'Loughlin is the funniest working mother in Australia today. Based in Alice Springs, Fiona has spent the past ten years working as a stand-up comedian and a columnist as well a writer and presenter for ABC Radio. She has performed many television comedy spots including popular guest appearances on ABC TV's Spicks and Specks, produced her own shows for Australian and UK comedy festivals and earned acclaim at Montreal's invitation-only Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. She appears across Australia every Friday morning as a social commentator on Channel 7's Sunrise program.

Currently Fiona is playing to packed houses at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in her 2007 show Fiona O'Loughlin, having just completed her most successful season at Adelaide's Fringe. This caps an excellent year so far, which has seen her taking part in local and overseas festivals. After making her Hobart Comedy Festival debut she invited to London to join the international cast of the show The World Stands Up, shot in London for broadcast in the US and UK as well as Australia. On the strength of her London appearance, Fiona was invited to participate in the Leicester Comedy Festival, UK's longest-running. This follows on from a full comedy calendar in 2006, which, in addition to local festival appearances, saw Fiona undertake her third season in Hong Kong, her third appearance at the prestigious Just for Laughs Festival and further critically acclaimed performances in Los Angeles. She was also the ‘Feature Act' in the Melbourne Comedy Festival Road Show, playing sell-out shows in Queensland and Tasmania.

Impressive achievements for any comedian, certainly, but remember that Fiona spent considerable time “doing housework and having babies” before she took to comedy, making her festival debut in Adelaide in 2000 in a show entitled Fiona And Her Sister (And Some Weird Guy). O'Loughlin took the show to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival the following year, returning with the Barry Award for Best Newcomer before making her Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut with it a few months later, again, to sold out houses. Fiona's glowing national UK reviews included a four-star write-up in the respected industry bible The List.

After a sell-out return festival season in Melbourne in early 2002 (with the show From Here To Maternity – extra shows failed to satisfy demand for tickets!), Fiona received her first invitation to appear at Montreal's Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. Her triumphant performances in July that year immediately led to headline appearances at the world-renowned Improv Comedy Club in Los Angeles. In subsequent years Fiona has continued to enjoy sell-out seasons at Australian comedy festivals. She has also branched out, taking her comedy to print and broadcast media. As with her comedy, Fiona's foray into other media was significantly successful. In 2003 Fiona wrote and starred in a series of Heinz television commercials that contributed to extraordinary growth in sales for those products. It was, of course, merely the first of a long list of television appearances, since Fiona is as natural a guest and raconteur, as she is a host and comic.