Early Life and Career
The daughter of Graham Frederick Brown and Margaret Elsie Brown (née Wicks), Harmer grew up in small country towns in Victoria, including Bendigo, Selby, and Geelong, where she studied Journalism at the Gordon Institute of Technology and became a reporter at the Geelong Advertiser. Her journalistic career took her to Melbourne, where she worked for The Sun newspaper and was introduced to a comedy group performing at the Flying Trapeze comedy venue. This group included Ian McFadyen, Mary-Anne Fahey, Peter Moon, and Jane Turner, who asked Harmer to join the group after performing some of the scripts she had written for them.
Not long after, 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 masterpieces of Australian comedy, including Faking It, Sunburn Bloody Sunburn, and Sunburn the Day After, which included the group from the Flying Trapeze and, amongst others, Mark Neale, Richard Stubbs, and Steve Vizard.
Harmer first appreared on television in The Gillies Report, along with John Clarke, Phillip Scott, Tracy Harvey, Geoff Kelso, Peter Moon, and Marcus Eye. Harmer went on to host her own show on ABC TV, The Big Gig, including, amongst others, performers Glynn Nicholas, Rod Quantock, Greg Fleet, and Jean Kittson.
Harmer is currently Editor in Chief of TheHoopla.com.au, a newly-launched news and opinion site for Australian women.
Read more about this topic: Wendy Harmer
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