Tom Gleeson
The host of Hard Quiz, Tom Gleeson is an Australian stand-up comedian, writer, television and radio presenter. He’s the comedian comedians watch
For thirty years, Tom Gleeson has been making audiences worldwide laugh with his unique and clever humour. Tom is one of Australia's favourite comedians, making countless TV appearances, and in 2019, he was awarded the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Television. He’s been nominated for a Helpmann Award twice and won the Piece of Wood Comedian’s Choice Award in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Making his first stage appearance as the character ‘Malcolm’, Tom quickly rose to fame, going on to perform at major comedy events including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Perth Fringe World, Edinburgh Fringe, and Montreal Comedy Festival. He was also selected to perform annually as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow from 2001 to 2007. Tom was personally requested to perform at the invite-only Kilkenny Comedy Festival in Ireland, and was chosen by Louis CK, at the biggest stand-up show on the planet, to be his support act for his Australian tour.
Tom was formerly a co-host alongside Judith Lucy on ‘The Weekly with Charlie Pickering’ and can now be seen hosting the nationally adored TV show ‘Hard Quiz’, and ‘Taskmaster Australia’. Although, after conquering stand-up comedy, Tom still longed to accomplish more. He has since become the publisher of a book, ‘Playing Poker with the SAS: A Comedy Tour of Iraq and Afghanistan’, which follows up his story ‘The Italian Job’. It appears in a collection of tales exploring long distance love, called ‘Take Me With You’, edited by Sarah MacDonald for Random House.
Making appearances on radio from 2004 to 2005, Tom was a presenter on the Sydney and Melbourne evening radio program alongside Subby Valentine called ‘Tom & Shubby’, on Triple M. He later aired on Mix 101.1, presenting the Melbourne radio breakfast program, Mix Mornings, with Brigitte Duclos in 2009.
In 2012, Tom returned to the stage with his live stand-up show, ‘Good One’, and in 2013 he performed his new stage show, ‘Hello Bitches’, which later became his biggest selling tour with crowds in both Adelaide and Melbourne lining up to watch. He has performed at the Sydney Opera House, every capital city in Australia, London, Dublin, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, whilst also entertaining troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tom’s vast experience has given him the ability to amaze any audience, at any event.
Tom has received a multitude of awards for his stand-up comedy. In 2019, his show 'Joy’, won Best Comedy at the Perth Fringe World. Later, he won the same award at the Adelaide Fringe in 2020, for his show, Lighten Up.
Today, Tom stands as a beacon of laughter, with his comedic genius marvelling audiences worldwide.