Wendy Harmer

Wendy Gai Harmer (born Wendy Brown, 10 October 1955) is an Australian author, children's writer, journalist, playwright, dramatist, radio show host, comedian, and television personality.

Harmer was born in Yarram, the daughter of a teacher, and grew up in small country towns in Victoria, including Warncoort, Selby, California Gully and Freshwater Creek, as well as the city of Geelong, where she studied journalism at the Gordon Institute of TAFE and Deakin University, and became a reporter at the Geelong Advertiser.

Harmer's journalistic career took her to Melbourne, where she worked for The Sun News-Pictorial on the rounds of transport, urban affairs and state politics.

As an arts feature writer, she was introduced to a comedy group performing at the Flying Trapeze comedy venue.

That group included Ian McFadyen, Mary-Anne Fahey and Peter Moon.

Harmer left The Sun News-Pictorial and worked part-time at the Melbourne Times, while performing as a stand-up comedian in her days off.

In the mid 1980s Harmer started on radio at 3AK with a Saturday night shift she shared with Jane Clifton.

Glenn Robbins was a regular guest.

Harmer was on the board of the first Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 1987, which featured Barry Humphries and Peter Cook.

She has also served on the boards of the Belvoir Theatre and the Malthouse Theatre.

She first appeared on television in the ABC children's show Trap, Winkle and Box.

She then joined the satirical political TV series The Gillies Report, along with John Clarke, Phillip Scott, Tracy Harvey, Patrick Cook and Jean Kittson.

Harmer went on to host ABC TV's, The Big Gig, including, among others, performers Glynn Nicholas, Rod Quantock, Greg Fleet, Jean Kittson and the Doug Anthony All Stars.

She also hosted her own ABC TV talk series In Harmer's Way, with comedians Greg Fleet, Andrew Goodone, Simon Rogers and Tim Smith.

Harmer performed at the Edinburgh Festival on four occasions:

She wrote, performed and sang in two one-woman shows with musicians - Love Gone Wrong and Please Send More Money, which was directed by Nigel Triffitt.

Harmer also appeared on the Ben Elton show Friday Night Live with Dame Edna Everage and the Doug Anthony All Stars.

Harmer is the author of seven books for adults: It's a Joke, Joyce (1989), Love Gone Wrong (1995), So anyway--: Wendy's words of wisdom (1997) (a collection of her weekly columns from the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend Magazine), Farewell My Ovaries (2005), Nagging for Beginners (2006), Love and Punishment (2006).

In 1992 she hosted a drive programme called Kaboom on Radio National.

In 1993, Harmer joined 2Day FM, co-hosting the highly rated breakfast radio show The Morning Crew for 11 years.

Harmer's performed her one-woman stand-up show Up Late and Loving It at Sydney's Wharf Theatre in 2001.

Harmer also appeared in Australian Story Operation Wendy in 2005 in which she travelled to Fiji with the team from Interplast.

In September 2005, she started in the morning shift at the new Sydney and Melbourne radio station Vega FM, but by March 2006 she had quit her morning show after creative differences with management.

Roadside Sisters was published in April 2009.

Her fourth was Friends Like These, published in 2011

Harmer's books have been described as being in the genre of chick lit or hen lit.

Harmer wrote that the genres were misunderstood for The Age newspaper.

"And if it's all just banal 'women' stuff? If children, marriage, friendship and happiness are just of marginal concern? Pass me the pastel-covered girlie book and break out the chocolate!"

They are popular light novels, and very humorous.

Harmer has also written a series of children's books called the Pearlie the Park Fairy.

There are 17 books in the series published to date.

They are bestsellers in Australia, and have been published in ten countries around the world.

She is acknowledged as the first Australian woman to enter the all-male domain of stand-up comedy in the 2015 ABC TV series Stop Laughing...This Is Serious.

Not long afterwards, Harmer was headlining her own shows at the Last Laugh theatre restaurant, owned by entrepreneur John Pinder, and later by Rick McKenna.

The shows included Faking It, Sunburn Bloody Sunburn, and Sunburn the Day After, which included the group from the Flying Trapeze and, among others, Mark Neale, Richard Stubbs, and Steve Vizard.

Her stand-up days were recalled in a 2015 episode of the ABC TV series Home Delivery hosted by Julia Zemiro.

Her episode was advertised as a "moving account of her life".

She performed at the 2016, 30th anniversary of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

In 2016, Harmer returned to radio, presenting the morning program on ABC Radio Sydney alongside Robbie Buck.

On 1 October 2021, Harmer and Buck announced via an ABC News story that they were leaving the morning program after working together for three years, stating that they decided to "go out on a high".