OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Magda Szubanski AO
Actor, Author and Advocate
She advocated tirelessly, making the case for equality with reason and dignity –her most notable appearances included a pivotal debate on the ABC's Q&A, interviews on A Current Affair and an address she gave at the National Press Club.
In 2012, Magda came out live on national TV and has been an active and high-profile campaigner for LGBTI+ rights ever since. She is patron of Twenty10, an ambassador for the Pinnacle Foundation and also volunteered for the Orlando Victims' Fundraiser concerts in Melbourne and Sydney.
Magda has received many accolades in the course of her career, including a Mo Award, seven Logie Awards, three Awgie Awards, two People's Choice Awards, two Astra Awards and the AFI for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Australia's favorite second-best friend, Sharon Strzelecki, a character she created herself. It has just been announced that she has been awarded the 2018 Victorian Award for Excellence in Women's Leadership by Women and Leadership Australia. She is also the 2018 recipient of the nation's top free speech honour, the Voltaire Award, given by Australia's oldest human rights organization, Liberty Victoria.
Magda completed a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University, majoring in Philosophy and Fine Arts. After early training with the ABC-TV cult show D-Generation, Magda shot to fame in 1989 in response to the huge variety of comic characters she created. For over thirty years Magda has survived and thrived at the top of the show business tree- a notoriously fickle and competitive industry. For three decades she has been a household name as one of Australia's most loved and respected actors, writers and producers. She was a key player in some of this country's most successful, iconic and groundbreaking shows - Kath and Kim, Fast Forward, D-Generation, and Big Girl's Blouse, sketch comedy Fast Forward, which played for several seasons and became one of Australia's highest-rating comedies.
She has become a best-selling, award-winning author, following the release of her internationally acclaimed memoir Reckoning. Released late 2015, Reckoning won a slew of literary awards including winner of the 2016 ABIA Book of the Year, Biography of the Year, Booksellers Choice Award, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Indie Award for Non-Fiction; Winner Victorian Community History Award and was shortlisted for several more awards including the National Biography Award.
Julian Morrow
Co-founder of The Chaser & Giant Dwarf, Creator of The Checkout
Julian Morrow has made a career of public nuisance in various forms, co-founding satirical media empire The Chaser and joke company Giant Dwarf, as well as making TV shows including The Election Chaser, CNNNN, The Chaser’s War on Everything, The Hamster Wheel and The Checkout. His work has been nominated, unsuccessfully, for many awards, and prosecuted successfully in many courts.
In recent years, he was taken to claiming credit for the work of others as Executive Producer of Lawrence Leung’s series Choose Your Own Adventure and Unbelievable, Eliza and Hannah Reilly’s Growing Up Gracefully and Sarah Scheller & Alison Bell’s The Letdown (which won the AACTA Award for Best TV Comedy in 2018 and 2019).
In 2012 and 2013 he lowered standards at ABC Radio National as host of Friday Drive, a program which led to huge career opportunities for its Monday-Thursday host, Waleed Aly. Julian has hosted Sunday Extra on Radio National since 2020.
In 2015, Julian founded Giant Dwarf theatre at 199 Cleveland Street Redfern, a venue which has been described as “absolutely hilarious” by his accountant.
Over the years, Julian has interviewed countless people whose cache he tries to cash in on in his CV including Edward Snowden, Christopher Hitchens, Sting, Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, Marc Newsome and the curator of TED Chris Anderson.
Due to the unavailability of several respected media commentators, in 2009 Julian was invited to give the Andrew Olle Media Lecture, an honour he later demeaned by creating The Annual Inaugural Chaser Lecture.
At the 50th Annual AWGIE Awards, the Fred Parsons Award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Comedy was awarded to Julian Morrow by the event’s MC, Julian Morrow.
Julian hopes one day to leave comedy and the media to pursue his dream of becoming a lawyer again.
Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Author and Academic
Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert has lived a reality that most would consider their worst nightmare – falsely imprisoned in an Iranian prison, placed in solitary confinement, with little to no hope of release.
In September 2018, Kylie was arrested by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps after travelling to the country to attend an academic conference at the invitation of a local university. While preparing to make her way home, Kylie was convicted of espionage in a sham trial and sentenced to 10 years.
Before this ordeal, Kylie graduated from the University of Cambridge with first-class honours in Arabic and Hebrew and obtained a PhD in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from the University of Melbourne. She wrote her first book, taught academic and master's courses, and supervised research students.
However, her studies and career could not prepare her for the indescribable conditions she faced during her incarceration, an experience that has affected every part of her life and changed her perspective on ambition, accomplishment and what truly matters.
Current Work:
After serving more than two years of her sentence, Kylie was brought back to Australia in a prisoner exchange deal in November 2020. She has resolved to advocate for other unjustly detained individuals in foreign prisons and shine a light on how international governments can better handle arbitrary detention.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is the author of the best-selling memoir The Uncaged Sky about the 804 days she spent in prison.
Osher Günsberg
Host of TV, Podcasts & Advocate
Osher Günsberg is one of Australia’s most recognisable media personalities and has been a guest in Australian living rooms for over 25 years.
From his work on Channel [V] in the early 2000’s to seven seasons on Australian Idol, Osher was the first (and at this stage still the only) Australian to host live network prime time TV in the USA when he fronted CBS’ Live To Dance.
Osher celebrated his 30th year in broadcasting with a Gold Logie Nomination for hosting both the Masked Singer and The Bachelors on Network10.
In the audio space, Osher can be heard on his podcast “Osher Günsberg: Better Than Yesterday”, making it better every week since 2013.
Aside from his broadcast work, Osher Günsberg is a passionate advocate for positive conversations around mental health and climate action.
The release of his memoir “Back, After the Break” became an instant best-seller and was nominated for a 2019 ABIA for Best Biography Book of the Year which was accompanied by a live show of the same name which sold out a national tour.
Aside from his regular TV work, Osher recently moved into hosting and producing documentaries – with spectacular success. His first film “Osher Günsberg: A Matter of Life and Death” (produced with Lune Media) was met with enormous acclaim and went on to win the coveted “Golden Goddess” for Best Documentary (one- off) at the 2022 Asian Academy Awards. His upcoming film, “My journey into a world of pain” explores the treatment of chronic and persistent pain.
In the live space, Osher recently completed a second season at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, with the acclaimed satirical news show he created “NTNNNNN”, where along with his talented cast they create an entirely new hour of comedy every night.
Off-air, Osher is a regular columnist for Men’s Health, and an in-demand keynote speaker. He currently serves on the board of We Ride Australia after having previously served on the board of SANE Australia, and is a proud ambassador for Movember.