Early and Personal Life
Blake grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley. He is a middle child; his older brother, Lachlan, is a solicitor and his sister, Sophie, has completed an arts degree. His parents, Noel and Kerry, separated when Blake was 17, with his father eventually remarrying. As a child, Blake says he was a fan of British comedy such as Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and Blackadder; as a teenager he "worshipped" comedians Tony Martin and Mick Molloy. Blake was a member of the National Boys Choir of Australia during the late 1980s. He attended primary school at Glen Waverley South Primary, high school at Caulfield Grammar School and later at St Leonard's College, graduating in 1999.
After a gap year, Blake enrolled at the University of Melbourne in a Science/Commerce double degree. "I'm interested in artificial intelligence and computer science. That stuff still fascinates me," he says. However, a few weeks into the semester he met Andy Lee: "That was the turning point. The wheels quickly fell off my academic career." Blake eventually dropped out of university to pursue a career in comedy alongside Lee. Blake's first experience with comedy was when he entered a competition at university. He was broke at the time, and hoped to win the $500 first prize. His stand-up performance earned him third place and qualified him for a statewide universities' final, which he did win.
Blake has four tattoos on his upper left arm. One is of a small anchor to symbolise his and Lee's trip on a tall ship to Tasmania, which was modified by placing the letters 'FR' to the left of the anchor producing the phonetic sound 'Franchor' in honour of Frank Stallone's Birthday. During the Perth show of the Thank You Tour Blake revealed the letters TH situated above the anchor to produce the phonetic sound "Thanchor" in thanks to the listeners of the show for the past five years. Another of a frog smoking a joint on a skateboard, which was designed and tattooed by Pink, as well as the Olympic rings to symbolise the Bi-Bi-Tri-Bi-athlon. The last tattoo is THURS 8:30 (the time-slot of his show, Hamish and Andy's Gap Year) which utilises the TH previously tattooed. Blake is an avid supporter of the Melbourne Football Club. Blake was selected as one of the entrants to the Who's Who in Australia 2011 edition.
On 3 January 2012, Blake announced that he was engaged to his girlfriend of eighteen months, Zoe Foster. Hamish and Zoe married in secret on 11 December 2012, Blake's 31st birthday.
Read more about this topic: Hamish Blake
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