The Show of the Year 2017

Casey Bennetto is an award-winning writer, musician and radio broadcaster. He wrote the musical KEATING!, hosts the program Superfluity on Melbourne’s 3RRR, and has appeared in places as diverse as ABCTV’s Spicks and Specks, the Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at Sydney Opera House.

Born in 1969, Bennetto spent his formative years amongst the fragrant meadows and blossoming malls of Greensborough, Melbourne.

He made his way to university, procured a BA and worked variously as a proofreader, a copywriter, an IT specialist and as the lead singer in the band Skin, which garnered national commercial airplay for their 1994 EP, Waking Up With You.

As part of the ‘Drowsy Drivers’ project, in 2004 Casey wrote a musical theatre biography of former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, KEATING!.

In late 2008, Casey premiered a new project as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival: A Largely Fanciful History Of The Spiegeltent, in which he also starred; he also wrote and performed in 2009's Evening and provided the songs for the ever-threatening Christmas pantomime The Terminativity in 2010–11. He served as dramaturge on Eddie’s Shane Warne: The Musical as well as making contributions to Company B’s The Adventures Of Snugglepot And Cuddlepie and Die Roten Punkte’s Super Musikant and Kunst Rock.

He scored both series of Amanda Brotchie and Adam Zwar's Lowdown and was nominated for an AACTA with Shellie Morris and Tim Cole for work on the 2014 musical documentary Prison Songs. He appeared with Alan Brough as underappreciated alternative rock icons The Narelles in 2015, and has hosted A Swingin' Bella Christmas for the past five years. He has hosted The Show Of The Year for the Wheeler Centre since the show's inception in 2013.

Most recently, he scored the ABC TV series Get Krack!n and is currently working on several things at once, obviously to the detriment of all of them.

Casey has also hosted a regular show on 3CR, worked extensively for PBS FM and made many appearances on 774 ABC Melbourne as host, co-host and guest.

His appearances on ABC TV’s Spicks And Specks resurface occasionally to shame him.

Isabel Angus is a multi-award winning writer and performer who has written and performed productions in a range of festivals around Australia. Isabel has been one half of theatrical comedy duo Isabel and Rachel, whose previous works include Isabel and Rachel’s EDGE!, which claimed various accolades, including Best Comedy at Melbourne Fringe Festival (2013) and a Weekly Award from the Adelaide Fringe Festival (2014).

Penny Parsins is Isabel’s latest comic character from her recent solo show BLISS at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Taking a subversive look at the absurdity of extreme fitness and wellness culture, Isabel’s alter ego Penny is an internet-accredited fitness trainer and self-appointed life guru. Penny is an extreme #fitspo fanatic and entrepreneur who offers #authentic demonstrations from her unique brand of wellness, Perfect_Penny_Body_Bliss™. This is also the name of Penny’s professional Instagram account (which she would like you to follow asap for daily #fitspiration).

Dave Arden is a Kokatha, Gunditjmara singer and songman. He has performed for 32 years in the Australian music industry with the likes of Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter, Paul Kelly, Kutcha Edwards, Bart Willoughby, Shane Howard, Altogether Band, Koori Youth Band and Hard Times. He also performed in, was a co-musical director and is a co-founder of The Black Arm Band – which toured around Australia and internationally. 

Through his music, Dave tells an old and a new story – that of his family’s journey over four generations, and the hope, joy and struggle of his tribal and urban life.

Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa is a first generation Australian Sikh spoken word artist, workshop facilitator, actor, producer and activist. Within a short period, Sukhjit has gone from being a participant in the Australian Poetry Slam Competition in 2014 to gracing the stage of Australia’s Got Talent in 2016, and most recently as a speaker at  TEDxUWA. She has performed with notable artists such as Missy Higgins and L-FRESH the Lion, and her performances and workshops have led her to travel globally and across the nation.

Newly-formed and all-star female acapella group Ladychoir comprises of six critically-acclaimed Australian singer-songwriters: Angie Hart, Emma Heeney, Tash Parker, Sophie Koh, Tess Hildebrand-Burke and Kirsty Joosten. The group's diverse repertoire ranges from original songs (penned by the award-winning songwriters within the group) to covers of Björk, Elbow and Dolly Parton.

Lehmo can be heard every weekday morning on Melbourne’s radio airwaves on GOLD 104.3 FM’s Jo and Lehmo breakfast show.

The former accountant is seen every Friday night on The Project panel. He is no stranger to TV, having also appeared on Utopia, It’s A Date, A League of Their Own, Good News Week, Rove Live, The Circle, The Glasshouse, Hey Hey It’s Saturday and Stand Up Live (UK TV). He was also a regular cast member of the much loved Before The Game for over six years on TEN.

Lehmo’s knack for making people laugh has seen him play to audiences in New York, London, Edinburgh, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong. He has performed sell out solo shows at Melbourne International Comedy Festival for over ten years, as well as regularly headlining top venues in Australia and entertaining troops in the Middle East. Lehmo’s first book, a memoir titled This Shirt Won’t Iron Itself, will be released November 2017.

Lehmo is pretty much the definition of a bloke's bloke, until a spider appears and he runs screaming from the room.

Lawrence is an award winning stand-up comedian, screenwriter and documentary-maker. He created the ABC1 comedy shows Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable and the AFI Award-nominated Choose Your Own Adventure and co-wrote and starred in ABC2's action/comedy series Maximum Choppage. Recently, he wrote an episode of The Family Law (SBS2) and played a sleazy nerd in Jane Campion's Top of the Lake.

Lawrence has performed his one man shows in festivals and theatres around the world including London's Soho Theatre and the Sydney Opera House. His award-winning theatre show, Sucker, was adapted into the AWGIE-nominated feature film starring Timothy Spall. The screenplay was shortlisted for the 2017 NSW Premier's Literary Award.

As a hardcore geek, Lawrence once jumped out of a plane with a Rubik’s Cube and solved it during freefall – just in time to release the parachute.

Ali Moore has more than 25 years experience as a journalist and broadcaster, working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's Nine Network, and for the BBC's global news network, based in Singapore. She has covered major news and current affairs events across the region, reporting from Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China.

She is now a freelance broadcaster and journalist and a Vice Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne, working with Asialink.

In her more than two decades as a broadcaster Ali has interviewed key decision makers from a range of companies, industries and political theatres. Her previous roles include ABC China Correspondent, host of Australia's premier late night TV current affairs program Lateline, and anchor of some of the country's key business news programs (Business Sunday, Lateline Business). 

Angela is an award-winning journalist, presenter, documentary-maker, author and MC.

Her most recent documentary, The Record, follows Australia’s dramatic Women’s T20 World Cup campaign and the audacious bid to fill the MCG for the final on International Women’s Day 2020. The two-part documentary premiered globally on Amazon Prime in March 2021, and had a secondary release on ABC TV. Angela co-wrote and co-produced the film. Her next documentary idea is bubbling away.

Angela is a co-host on Broad Radio - a live-streamed radio show by and for women.

She also writes regular columns about sport and culture for a number of publications and is a tireless campaigner for gender equality in sport and society. In fact, her most recent book, Breaking The Mould – Taking a Hammer to Sexism in Sport made the Grattan Institute’s ‘Prime Minister’s Summer Reading list’, The Australia Institute’s ‘Essential Reading List’ and is on its third reprint.

Angela is a proud ambassador of the Adelaide Crows.

Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival. He has spent the past decade at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne as its ...

Selina Jenkins is an acclaimed musician, award winning cabaret artist and celebrated character comedian. She has performed extensively throughout Australia and the US, appeared on ABC Comedy Up Late and will be debuting her highly anticipated new solo show ‘Boobs’ at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. Selina is also the woman behind renowned comedy character 'Beau Heartbreaker'.