Speakers Profile - Tom Ballard










Travels From:
Sydney

Fee Range: E


Tom Ballard is the fearlessly funny voice of a generation.

He�s one of Australia�s hottest stand-up comedians (not physically). Since becoming the youngest ever winner of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival�s Best Newcomer Award in 2009, Tom�s twice been nominated for Most Outstanding Show at MICF, as well as scoring nominations for Best Newcomer and Best Show at the Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Awards. He took out the 2016 Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer and he�s been a regular hit at the invite-only Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, where he�s performed alongside the likes of Wanda Sykes and Jimmy Carr.

In 2017, Tom filmed his show The World Keeps Happening as a special for the Australian streaming service Stan. In 2022 he released another special, Enough � recorded at the stunning Chapel Off Chapel in Melbourne � on Paramount+, and was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to record Solastalgia � a half-hour stand-up special about the climate crisis.

Tom is also accomplished broadcaster who loves to interrogate and satirise politics and culture. For four years he co-hosted the national triple j breakfast show with his buddy Alex Dyson (and won an ARIA along the way), and he�s been seen hosting Reality Check � a panel show about the dark secrets of reality television � and his own (very naughty) late-night show Tonightly with Tom Ballard.

Tom created the political interview podcast Like I�m A Six-Year-Old, which saw him laugh and argue with hundreds of guests from across the political spectrum; he co-hosts the green/Left Serious Danger podcast with his comrade Emerald Moon; and on multiple occasions he�s guest-hosted the ABC�s premiere political discussion show, Q&A. In 2022, he released his debut book I, Millennial: One Snowflake�s Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires & Everything Else � an insightful and sassy summary of exactly how his generation has been screwed by the status quo.

2023 has seen Tom tour his new hour IT IS I across Australia to critical acclaim and make his major acting debut as the lovable/hopeless Sven in the Amazon original series Deadloch � a comedy-feminist-noir-murder-mystery from the minds of Kate McLennan & Kate McCartney.

Tom Ballard delivers big laughs about big ideas. His work is smart, scathing, bold, occasionally silly, and extremely cheeky � but always comes with a lot of heart.