Nina Oyama

Nina Oyama
Born	(1993-08-18) 18 August 1993 (age 31)
Nationality	Australian
Occupations	Comedian writer actress director
Years active	2012–present
Known for	Utopia, Tonightly with Tom Ballard, The Angus Project

Nina Oyama (born 18 August 1993) is an Australian comedian, writer, actress and director. She is well known for her roles in Utopia, Taskmaster Australia, and Deadloch.

Early life and education

Oyama was born on 18 August 1993^[1][2] to an Australian mother from Sydney's Northern Beaches and a Japanese father. Her parents met at a hostel in Nagoya.^[3]

She attended North Sydney Girls High School,^[4] and went on to study communications and theatre media at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, New South Wales.^[5]

Career

Oyama began performing stand-up comedy at 17 years old.^[5] In 2012, she was a state finalist in the Class Clowns competition. That year she also performed at The Sydney Fringe as part of "Barely Legal - Australia's Best Young Comedians" alongside Neel Kolhatkar and Aaron Chen,^[6] and performed on Dan Ilic's FBi Radio show.^[3] Oyama became a writer for the children's sketch comedy show You're Skitting Me, and made her television debut performing stand-up comedy on SBS 2 in 2014.^[5]

In 2017, Oyama was cast as executive assistant/receptionist Courtney Kano in the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of Utopia. In the same year, she joined the cast of ABC Comedy's topical entertainment show Tonightly with Tom Ballard as a writer; she also starred in the second and final series of the show in 2018.^[7]

Oyama directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in The Angus Project, a web series and television pilot that aired on ABC iview in 2018. Based on real events in Bathurst,^[8] the series co-stars Angus Thompson as a sports journalist with cerebral palsy, for whom Oyama becomes a friend and caregiver. The show received praise for its earnest depictions of disability and regional Australia.^[9][10]

As of 2019^[update] Oyama was regularly performing stand-up comedy.^[11]

In 2020, she starred on the Network 10 sketch comedy series Kinne Tonight,^[12] and served as a scriptwriter for Michael Cusack's Adult Swim series YOLO: Crystal Fantasy.^[13] She co-directed the film Diving In, which starred an amputee swimmer and was featured in the 2020 Sydney Film Festival.^[14] Also in that year, Oyama received media attention for making "#CatPoop" a trending topic on Twitter in Australia.^[15]

On 9 July 2024, Deadloch was renewed for a second season and it was announced that Oyama would reprise the role of Abby Matsuda.^[16] On 28 October, Oyama was named for the animated film The Pout Pout Fish.^[17]

Personal life

Oyama is bisexual.^[3]

Filmography

TV/Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
TBA	The Pout Pout Fish	Pip	Film
2023–present	Deadloch	Abby Matsuda	8 episodes
2023	Home and Away	Slyvie Grey	2 episodes
	We Interrupt This Broadcast	Melissa Leong	7 episodes
	Koala Man	Little Nina	1 episode
2021	Mikki vs The World	Various	Series 1
2020	The Chasers War on 2020	Various
	Moments of Clarity	Nat	5 episodes
	Dom and Adrian	Debbie	TV Special
2019–2020	Kinne Tonight	Various	13 episodes
2020	Soulless	Danni	Short
	The Complex	Megan	Short
2017–2019, 2023	Utopia	Courtney	16 episodes
2018	Fresh Blood Pilot Season	Nina	1 episode

Self appearances

Year	Title	Notes
2019	Spicks and Specks	1 episode
2021	Question Everything	1 episode
2023	Have You Been Paying Attention?	1 episode
	Taskmaster Australia	Season 1 contestant 10 episodes
	Would I Lie to You?	1 episode
2024	Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee	2 episodes
2024	Thank God You’re Here	1 episode

Writer

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2023	Monologue	Writer	2 episodes
	Class of '07	Developer	8 episodes
	Koala Man	Writer	1 episode
2022	Latecomers[18]	Creator/Writer	6 episodes
2020	Diving In	Writer	Short
	The Chaser's War on 2020	Writer
	YOLO: Crystal Fantasy	Writer	1 episode
2019	Squinters	Additional Material	6 episodes
2018	Fresh Blood Pilot Season	Writer	1 episode
2017–2018	Tonightly with Tom Ballard	Writer	161 episodes
2013–2016	You're Skitting Me	Additional Material	39 episodes
2016	The Chaser's Election Desk	Additional Material	5 episodes

Awards and nominations

• 2018: Pilot of The Angus Project nominated for an Australian Directors' Guild award^[3]
• 2019: Nominated, Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival^[11]

References

1. Oyama, Nina [@nina.oyama] (18 August 2021). "hey friends I'm 28 fkn years old today, but time has no meaning in lockdown so for showbiz purposes I actually identify as being '21' thanks (Shot ➡️ Set Up) ✨✨✨ @houstonsinclair 📸". Australia. Retrieved 12 July 2023 – via Instagram.
2. Oyama, Nina (2 June 2021). "Nina Oyama: the funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
3. O'Brien, Kerrie (16 August 2019). "From podcast to Utopia: Comedian Nina Oyama discovers her 'funny bones'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
4. "'Frottage' with Nina Oyama". Were You Hot in High School? Podcast. Podbean.com. 19 February 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
5. Burke, Kate (1 March 2014). "Stand up comedian to make TV debut". The Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
6. "Barely Legal - Australia's Best Young Comedians @ The Laugh Garage". Retrieved 26 March 2021.
7. "ABC ditches Tonightly with Tom Ballard". ABC Online. 13 August 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
8. Bryce, Chloe (21 February 2019). "I met my future carer while drunk at a party and we made a show about it". ABC Online. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
9. Baldwin, Alistair (19 November 2018). "With 'The Angus Project', We Finally Have A Show That Gets Comedy And Disability Right". Junkee. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
10. "Angus Thompson and Nina Oyama: The Angus Project". Access2Arts. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
11. Radojkovic, Mick (14 May 2019). "Nina Oyama @ Factory Theatre". The Music.
12. "TV Guide: Kinne Tonight returns to 10 on May 25". Mediaweek. 12 May 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
13. Keast, Jackie (6 April 2020). "Adult Swim orders Princess Pictures' 'Yolo: Crystal Fantasy'". IF Magazine.
14. Scholfield-Peters, Tess (12 June 2020). "Diving In, with Nina Oyama and Adam Bowes | Urban Village". Retrieved 26 March 2021.
15. Earp, Joseph (17 June 2020). "To prove how easy it is to get things trending on twitter, this comedian sent cat poop viral". Junkee. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
16. Knox, David (9 July 2024). "Renewed: Deadloch | TV Tonight". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
17. Staff Writer (27 October 2024). "Nina Oyama, Remi Hii, Miranda Otto dive in for 'The Pout Pout Fish'". IF Magazine. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
18. "Airdate: Latecomers | TV Tonight". 10 November 2022.

External links

• Nina Oyama at IMDb