Australian and New Zealand Comedians to Book for Your Event

Did you hear the one about the kangaroo? PepTalk represents Australian and New Zealand comedians across stand-up, hosting, physical comedy and circus, and most of them are already based in the UK. That means an Antipodean act on your awards night or after-dinner slot without a long-haul flight sitting on the invoice.

The comedy circuit in both countries is small, competitive and festival-driven. Acts come up through the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the New Zealand International Comedy Festival and awards like the Billy T, then test the material again at the Edinburgh Fringe. By the time they reach a corporate stage they have usually played to rooms that were not there for them, which is exactly the skill a conference lunch break demands.

The comedians below are grouped by where they started rather than where they live now.

Which Australian comedians can you book for a corporate event?

PepTalk works with ten Australian comedians, ranging from television hosts and Olivier-winning composers to festival award winners and podcasters. Most are London-based and available for keynote entertainment, awards hosting, after-dinner sets and panel moderation. Fees vary widely by profile, so the right pick usually comes down to room size and audience rather than name recognition alone.

Adam Hills

Book Adam for

An after-dinner set or awards host who can work a room without cynicism.

Adam Hills presents Channel 4's RTS-award-winning The Last Leg, which makes him one of the few names on this list an audience will recognise before you announce him. He has performed 16 solo shows worldwide and published a memoir, Best Foot Forward, covering encounters with Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Connolly.

His stage style balances observation with storytelling, and he does not build laughs out of mockery. That matters for mixed corporate audiences where a room can turn quickly. His disability sports advocacy, documented in Take His Legs following the Warrington Wolves Physical Disability Rugby League team, also makes him a credible fit for inclusion-themed events rather than a purely entertainment booking.

Learn more and book Adam Hills →

Tim Minchin

Book Tim for

Musical comedy with the writing credentials of Matilda behind it.

Tim Minchin is a multiple Olivier and Helpmann Award winner, Tony and Grammy nominated, and the composer-lyricist behind Matilda the Musical and Groundhog Day. He has played the Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House and Wembley Arena, and released four specials including Back in 2022.

For an organiser, the draw is scale. His 2020 album Apart Together reached number three in Australia and the top 30 in the UK, and his UWA honorary doctorate speech has passed 150 million views. He is a member of the Order of Australia with three honorary doctorates of letters, so he sits comfortably on a stage where the brief is closer to a headline moment than a comedy slot.

Learn more and book Tim Minchin →

Sarah Kendall

Book Sarah for

Long-form storytelling comedy with a Taskmaster winner's timing.

Sarah Kendall has been nominated twice for the Edinburgh Comedy Award and created the television series Frayed, which won the C21 International Award for Best Comedy Drama and earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Comedy Actress as Sammy Cooper.

Her Radio 4 series Australian Trilogy won the BBC Audio Drama Award and the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award in consecutive years, which tells you where her strength sits. She builds structured stories rather than running a set of one-liners, so she suits a seated audience with time on the clock. She also won series 11 of Taskmaster, a detail she brings up regularly and which gives her instant recognition with younger rooms.

Learn more and book Sarah Kendall →

Bec Hill

Book Bec for

Visual, prop-led comedy that lands with mixed and family audiences.

Bec Hill is an Australian comedian, writer and presenter, London-based, best known for a technique she calls paper-puppetry: flip-chart drawings built into the act so the visuals carry the punchline alongside the writing. The videos have travelled well beyond her live audience.

She created Pun Run, the UK's only pun-based comedy night, and has won Best Kids Show at the Leicester Comedy Awards. Her one-liners turn up regularly in best-joke lists from The Telegraph, The Guardian and Dave. Writing credits include The Amazing World of Gumball, The Now Show and Bluestone 42. For organisers, the useful part is range: she plays corporate functions, family events and comedy club nights with the same act adjusted rather than rebuilt.

Learn more and book Bec Hill →

More Australian comedians to know

Felicity Ward

Australian comedian and actor, currently starring in the Australian adaptation of The Office. She was nominated for Best Show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for Busting a Nut, and speaks openly about anxiety and IBS, which makes her a fit for wellbeing programmes as well as entertainment slots.

Learn more and book Felicity Ward →

Carl Donnelly

Nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009 and for the main Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2013, Carl has played Just For Laughs Montreal, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Kilkenny Cat Laughs. He hosts the podcast Two Vegan Idiots and moderates panels as often as he performs.

Learn more and book Carl Donnelly →

Reuben Kaye

Australian comedian, singer and writer who performs with his band The Close Contacts, combining cabaret spectacle with political commentary. He has won the Off West End Award for Best Cabaret, multiple Australian Green Room Awards, and the Adelaide Fringe Award for Best Cabaret twice.

Interested in booking Reuben? Get in touch with the PepTalk team, or read Comedians to book for your Christmas party.

Alice Fraser

Named one of The Telegraph's 50 Funniest Comedians of the 21st Century, Alice co-hosts The Bugle and contributes to BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz. She trained in law at Sydney University and English literature at Cambridge, and builds sets around grief, wellness culture and mortality.

Interested in booking Alice? Get in touch with the PepTalk team, or read Funny with a point: comedians who can carry a message.

Nazeem Hussain

Winner of Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and twice nominated for the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer. He created and starred in Legally Brown and Orange Is the New Brown, and draws on growing up as the child of Sri Lankan migrants in Melbourne.

Interested in booking Nazeem? Get in touch with the PepTalk team, or read Funny with a point: comedians who can carry a message.

Dan Schreiber

Co-host of No Such Thing As A Fish, the QI spin-off podcast past 400 million downloads, and co-creator of Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity. He turns obscure facts into stories with punchlines, which works well for conference audiences who want entertainment with something to take away.

Interested in booking Dan? Get in touch with the PepTalk team, or read Funny with a point: comedians who can carry a message.

Which New Zealand comedians can you book?

PepTalk represents six New Zealand comedy acts, covering silent physical comedy, stand-up, MC work, close-up magic and sketch circus. New Zealand produces a high proportion of visual and physical performers relative to the size of its scene, which makes this group useful for multilingual audiences and events where a talking-head set would not hold the room.

Tape Face

Book Tape Face for

A silent headline act that plays to every language in the room.

Sam Wills performs as Tape Face, entirely without words, using props, physical comedy and a strip of tape across his mouth. He reached the finals of America's Got Talent in 2016, where his performances passed 220 million views online, and has won the Billy T Award and performed at the Royal Variety Performance.

Since 2018 he has held a Las Vegas residency, currently at the MGM Grand. The practical advantage for an international conference is that the act needs no translation. He builds from simple sight gags into longer sequences using staplers, wooden boards and whatever else is to hand, pulling audience members into the routine as he goes. Tech and staging requirements sit in the rider on his profile.

Learn more and book Tape Face →

More New Zealand comedians to know

Alice Brine

Billy T Award nominee who sold out consecutive festival runs in New Zealand before moving to the UK in 2018. She has supported Alan Carr and Grace Campbell on tour, appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show, and hosts the Wheely Funny comedy night in London.

Learn more and book Alice Brine →

Matt Stellingwerf

Four-time NZ Comedy Guild Award winner and a trained criminologist, nominated three times for Best MC in New Zealand. That MC record is the reason to look at him for a conference or awards night where the host has to carry the running order as well as the laughs.

Learn more and book Matt Stellingwerf →

Rose Matafeo

Her show Horndog won Best Show at the Edinburgh Fringe and was recorded as an HBO Max special. She writes and stars in Starstruck, streamed over 8.2 million times on BBC iPlayer and pre-sold to more than 100 territories. She competed on series nine of Taskmaster and appears regularly on UK panel shows.

Interested in booking Rose? Get in touch with the PepTalk team, or read Funny with a point: comedians who can carry a message.

Jarred Fell

Auckland comedian and magician who has performed in over 17 countries and spent eight years with P&O Australia Cruise Line. He holds the Top Comedy Award and Top Close-Up Magician titles in New Zealand, plus the Top Magic Award at the Adelaide Fringe.

Interested in booking Jarred? Get in touch with the PepTalk team, or read Comedians to book for your Christmas party.

Laser Kiwi

A three-piece sketch circus troupe of siblings Zane and Degge with aerialist Imogen Stone, formed in 2014. They won the Overall Circus Award at Fringeworld in 2023 and Best Circus and Physical Theatre at Adelaide Fringe in 2019, and have appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us.

Interested in booking Laser Kiwi? Get in touch with the PepTalk team, or read Comedians to book for your Christmas party.

Why book an Australian or New Zealand comedian?

Australian and New Zealand comedians tend to arrive on a UK corporate stage with more live hours behind them than their profile suggests. Both scenes are small (Think Auckland, Wellington, Melbourne, Sydney), so acts tour constantly, play festivals in three countries a year, and learn to open cold in front of audiences who have never heard of them.

That produces a specific set of skills. Room control, because festival slots are short and the audience is distracted. Adaptability, because the same act has to work in Melbourne, Auckland and Edinburgh. And a low-status stage persona that works well in a corporate room, where a performer who arrives expecting deference usually does not.

There is a practical point too. Most of the comedians on this list live in the UK, so a booking involves domestic travel rather than an international flight, a visa and a fee uplift for the trip. If you are running an event in Australia or New Zealand, the reverse applies for the acts still based there.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to book an Australian or New Zealand comedian?

Booking an Australian or New Zealand comedian costs from around £2,000 for a club-level set to more than £25,000 for a headline name with television recognition. The variables are profile, set length, and whether you want a straight performance or hosting duties across a full evening. Send us your date and audience size and we will come back with real numbers.

Are these Australian and New Zealand comedians based in Australia and New Zealand or in the UK?

Most of these Australian and New Zealand comedians are UK-based. Bec Hill, Alice Brine, Matt Stellingwerf, Alice Fraser, Felicity Ward and Reuben Kaye all live and work in the UK, so a booking is a domestic travel arrangement. Adam Hills splits his time between the UK and Australia, and Tape Face is currently resident in Las Vegas.

Which of these comedians can host an awards night?

The comedians here who can host an awards night are Adam Hills, Matt Stellingwerf and Carl Donnelly. Hills hosts The Last Leg and handles a live room with an autocue and a running order. Stellingwerf has three Best MC nominations in New Zealand. Donnelly moderates panels regularly, which is a different skill from stand-up and the one an awards night actually needs. For more on the hosting format and the options beyond comedians, read UK Award Ceremony Hosts Beyond The Comedian.

Will a silent or visual comedy act work for an international audience?

Yes, a silent or visual comedy act works well for an international audience, and it is the main reason to book one. Tape Face performs without speaking at all, and Laser Kiwi's sketch circus relies on physical comedy. Neither needs translation, subtitles or cultural context, which makes them a safer choice than a stand-up set for a room where English is a second language for a large share of the audience.

💡 Looking for an Australian or New Zealand comedian for your next event? Tell us the date, the room and the audience, and we will shortlist the acts that fit. Send us a message via the chat and we'll take it from there. Remember, it's always a good time to get a PepTalk!