Adam Spencer

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Adam Barrington Spencer (born 29 January 1969) is an Australian comedian, media personality and former radio presenter.

Born on 29 January 1969, in Sydney, Spencer grew up in the Hunters Hill/Gladesville area.

A few hours after birth, he had a seizure, and doctors found blood between his brain and scalp.

Twice in the first two days of his life, a priest was called to give the last rites.

Between the ages of three until about 11, Spencer underwent a series of operations by eye surgeon Fred Hollows.

The deadening of the eyelid muscle led to permanent ptosis (drooping of the upper eyelid) and noticeable facial asymmetry.

He later received a transplant from a donor (who had been in a motorcycle accident) in an operation, allowing him to "open" that eye.

Spencer attended Boronia Park Public School, where his favourite teacher, Ms Russell, encouraged his love of mathematics when he was in second grade, in 1976.

In 1981 he won a scholarship to attend St Aloysius' College in Sydney, and was a vice-captain of the College and Captain of the Australian Schools Debating Team.

He graduated with a score of 200 out of 200 in four-unit maths.

His earliest job was selling newspapers, and during university worked as a dishwasher at a pancake restaurant.

He was a member of Scouts Australia.

Spencer was the first in his family to attend university, and originally enrolled to study arts-law.

This included economics and philosophy, but he dropped out of those, taking up maths to "round it out", but eventually changed to a maths major.

He won the Australasian debating championship twice (1988, 1990).

He was President of the University of Sydney Union.

While at university, he was one of the world's top-ranked debaters, reaching the final round of the World Universities Debating Championship three times (1990, 1992, 1996) and winning World's Best Individual Speaker (1996).

He graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science with first class honours in pure mathematics in 1991, residing at St Paul's College during his time there.

He first came to fame when he won his round of the comedic talent search Raw Comedy in 1996.

Soon thereafter, he began working at Triple J, on mid-dawn and drive shifts before hosting the Triple J Breakfast Show with Wil Anderson.

He later hosted Breakfast on 702 ABC Sydney.

He is a patron of science-related events and programs, including the University of Sydney's Sleek Geeks Science Prize (category in the Eureka Prize).

He collaborated with Karl Kruszelnicki for the long-running Sleek Geek Week tour (as part of National Science Week).

He hosts events and panels, writes mathematical recreation books, and performs his own comedy at events around the country.

He was secretly entered into the Triple J Raw Comedy Championship in 1996 by a former girlfriend, and won the NSW championship (although this has also been reported as winning the second prize, as he came second in the national competition).

Spencer has been a host of ABC science shows Quantum, FAQ and Sleek Geeks.

Spencer was spotted by radio station Triple J's senior broadcaster, Helen Razer, at the 1996 Raw Comedy Finals, when he provided a live impromptu weather segment involving mathematical equations.

This approach to presenting maths via the weather has been noted by other mathematicians.

He was invited to do occasional work at Triple J, and then hosted segments during the midnight-to-dawn shifts.

He did guest spots entitled "Bloking up" on Razer and Judith Lucy's Ladies Lounge afternoon show.

When Lucy left Triple J for Melbourne's FOX-FM, he joined as co-host of the Departure Lounge.

Helen Razer left in 1998.

He was a regular guest on the O'Loghlin variety comedy show since its first episode in June 1999.

In October 2001, he hosted the Visions for a Nation Federation Forum.

In August 2002, he made a guest appearance on Cheez TV (Channel Ten), playing a burglar with an aversion to old Wham! songs.

His father Larry, died from prostate cancer in 2004.

He has a brother and a sister.

He is a supporter of the Australian rules football team, the Sydney Swans, and was declared their number one ticket holder for the 2016 season.