Speakers Profile - Michele A'Court










Travels From:
New Zealand

Fee Range: A


Winner of the NZ Comedy Guild's Best Female Comedian Award for the past six years, Michele A'Court has successfully made a living, raised a child and paid a mortgage for more than a decade as a professional stand-up comedian and corporate entertainer.

Whether it's on stage, television, radio, or in print, Michele has an ability to find just the right way to reach her audience. As an after-dinner speaker, event host and conference MC, Michele's hundreds of corporate clients over the past decade include accountants, health care workers, IT specialists, plumbers, insurance specialists, builders, lawyers, electrical workers and scientists.

She is in demand on both radio and television as a social commentator - on TVNZ's 'Breakfast', Radio NZ National's 'he Panel'with Jim Mora and '9 to Noon' with Kathryn Ryan and Te Radar.

Michele writes a weekly column on current social issues in 'Your Weekend', the new magazine launched in September 2008, distributed through Wellington's Dominion-Post, the Christchurch Press and the Waikato Times.

She also reviews books for The NZ Listener and Radio NZ National, and contributes two fresh comedy spots each weeks on Auckland radio's EasyMix, a job she has held for the past three years.

Michele first came to NZ's attention 20 years ago as the award-winning host of What Now, the children's TV show which aired live for two hours each week, and The Video Dispatch, a current affairs programme aimed at youth, but (according to legend) the 'must-see TV show' for NZ's politicians.

Since then, her international experience as a stand-up comedian includes shows at comedy festivals in Edinburgh, Melbourne, Adelaide and NZ - shows which have dealt with the war on terror, national and international politics, life, love and laughter. Michele also performed for the troops in East Timor in 2001.

In 2008, Michele was awarded 'Spirit of the Festival - Wellington' at the NZ International Comedy Festival. Her show, 'The Lady Bunch' was nominated for Best Local Show, and is now in demand throughout the country.

At the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2007, Michele was part of an international showcase of female comedians from Canada, Scotland, Hawaii and Australia, 'Titters!', which won the much-coveted 'People's Choice Award 2007'.

Her 2006 solo show, '40 Odd Years', was an autobiographical retrospective that celebrated midlife crises and the depression epidemic - winning 4-stars in Adelaide, and nominated in NZ for 'Best Festival Show'. Her show for 2005, 'Heritage 101', focused on race relations and kiwi nationhood, and won the NZ Festival Award for Best Show Concept.