The Chaser - The Chaser

The Chaser

The Chaser's earliest foundations were Charles Firth, Dominic Knight, and Chas Licciardello who went to Sydney Grammar School together and produced a small satirical school magazine The Tiger. Then Firth, Knight and Licciardello met Craig Reucassel, Andrew Hansen and Julian Morrow at the University of Sydney. Chris Taylor also attended the University of Sydney but never knew the others during that time. Licciardello, Knight, Reucassel and Morrow all studied law at the Sydney Law School and Firth, Taylor and Hansen all studied in the University of Sydney Faculty of Arts. Firth and Hansen featured in the ABC documentary called "Uni" by film-maker Simon Target. Firth and Hansen organised the University of Sydney Arts Revue and Firth, Knight, Reucassel and Morrow wrote for the University of Sydney student newspaper Honi Soit. In 1999 the four members began The Chaser and their first newspaper project entitled The Chaser.

The Chaser members are:

Charles Firth. Firth decided in 1999 that the founding members should produce a newspaper, in an attempt not to "grow up". Firth was the main person who got the project underway and was at the helm of the newspaper until its collapse in 2005. Firth appeared in The Chaser's television and radio productions until 2004. In 2005, Firth moved to the United States so his wife could finish her PhD. Firth, however, became The Chaser's American correspondent for the 2006 series of The Chaser's War on Everything and wrote a book titled American Hoax. Firth did some final stunts in America for the 2007 series in late 2006 and early 2007, before returning to Australia and going solo. Firth then began his own satirical newspaper The Manic Times in 2007, which collapsed soon after and now exists online.

Dominic Knight was one of the founding members of the team. He appeared and starred in the 2001 series of The Election Chaser and the 2005 mini series Chaser News Alert. He also performed in the stage shows. He normally writes and does not perform for The Chaser's television shows.

Julian Morrow. He became the executive producer of the television series after Andrew Denton left the role in 2004.

Craig Reucassel was a founding member of the team.

Chas Licciardello, who had attended Sydney Grammar School with Firth and Knight, started to work on The Chaser newspaper in 1999, but did not take any credit for his work. However when the newspaper started to go well, he was happy to put his name to his work. Licciardello refers to himself as a writer and not a performer, which is why he does the ‘edgier’ stunts in the television series. He states that he is not very talented and therefore does “lots of dodgy material”.

Chris Taylor had gone to the University of Sydney but never personally knew the four founding members. He moved to Melbourne under a cadetship with the ABC doing journalism. Taylor approached The Chaser, based in Sydney, and asked if they took contributions and The Chaser accepted them. Taylor spent two years emailing his articles to The Chaser, and then quit his job to do a television series based on the 2001 Australian federal election with The Chaser and became a member of The Chaser. Taylor was the anchor with Reucassel in their television productions CNNNN, The Chaser Decides and The Chaser’s War on Everything and worked as the script editor for the television shows.

Andrew Hansen worked with some of The Chaser members at the University of Sydney while studying literature and history, performing in their early revues. Hansen started working with the online Chaser website in 2000 writing columns for his shITe section, which looked at the worst of the internet. After two years, he was considered for a part in the Chaser’s 2002 television series, for the content on shITe. After The Election Chaser in 2001, The Chaser decided they needed a performer in the team. Hansen then joined in the group in 2002.