Australian comedian
Broden Kelly |
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| Occupation | Comedian |
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| Years active | 2011–present |
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| Notable work | Aunty Donna |
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Broden Kelly is an Australian comedian based in Melbourne. He is a founding member of Australian comedy group Aunty Donna, and their associated production company Haven't You Done Well Productions.
He currently hosts an Australian Football comedy podcast The Footy with Broden Kelly.
Early life
Kelly grew up in Adelaide, South Australia and Melbourne, Victoria due to his father's work. While at high school in Melbourne, he met Thomas Zahariou and Max Miller. He worked at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, following in his grandfather's footsteps.[1][2]
Career
In 2008, he enrolled in the arts academy at the University of Ballarat to study performing arts. While in Ballarat, he met fellow students Zachary Ruane, Mark Bonanno, Sam Lingham, Joe Kosky and Adrian Dean. After graduating in 2010, he inquired if they wished to start a comedy group, with Zahariou and Miller joining and Kosky leaving. The group, now known as Aunty Donna, began working on a live show, which debuted at the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Aunty Donna in Pantsuits. The show was nominated for a Golden Gibbo, for the best independent, artist-lead show. They then won the People's Choice Award at the 2012 Melbourne Fringe Festival, with their next show Aunty Donna and the fax machine shop.[3]
Despite this success, Aunty Donna was not yet successful enough to sustain Kelly and he was forced onto Centrelink welfare payments due to a lack of work. An unsuccessful trial as a cheesemaker led him to work harder to make comedy a successful career, leading to an acting role in a travelling troupe that would perform anti-cyberbullying shows to high schools. This experience hardened his resolve and allowed him to withstand heckles and abuse during other comedy shows. Comedy only became a viable option for him when he was cast in a Coles ad that ran for five years.[3]
Despite success with the Aunty Donna YouTube channel, including the webseries Glennridge Secondary College and 1999, wider success was eluding him. After two failed pilots with the ABC, they managed to gain funding from Netflix to produce Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, which was released in November 2020.[3][4]
On the back of this success, Kelly and Aunty Donna toured Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe with The Magical Dead Cat Tour, as well as creating Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe for the ABC.[5][6]
In 2023, Kelly, a lifelong Australian Football fan, began a podcast, The Footy with Broden Kelly, co-hosting with Aunty Donna co-founder, Thomas Zahariou. Marnie Vinall, a journalist with The Age joined them in mid-2023. The success of the podcast has led to Kelly being appointed the "Chief Bandwagon Officer" for the GWS Giants, as well as an ambassador role with the Melbourne Football Club.[7][8]
Personal life
Kelly is a lifelong Melbourne Football Club fan.[7] He is in a relationship with comedian Annie Lumsden.[9]
References
External links
