Jean Kittson is one of the best known and most popular media personalities in Australasia. Her talents span speaking, writing and acting and she can be found amusing audiences in the theatre, in print, on radio and television; and at many a conference or event.
She made her comedy debut at Melbourne's legendary comedy venue Le Joke in a series of solo performances, and then in the stage version of Let the Blood Run Free. This show later became a television series for Network Ten and Britain's Channel Four, and was distributed worldwide.
Jean earned national fame through ABC TV's The Big Gig as a comic chameleon, with characters as diverse as Veronica Glenhuntley the lovelorn newsreader; Candida the new-age aerobics instructor; Rose McCloud, the acerbic air hostess and many others. Following this success, Jean teamed up with Maryanne Fahey to become the first female comedians to have their own show on Australian TV, Kittson Fahey, which won a Silver Medal at the New York Television Festival.
Jean Kittson's other television appearances include starring in Channel 9's series Flat Chat, as a regular guest on Good News Week and as a presenter of the ABC's Media Dimensions program. She is also well known for her lively comedy debates in The Great Debate series. Jean has also been a regular guest on ABC TV's The Einstein Factor and The Glass House.
In 1990 Jean starred in the David Williamson play Siren. In 1991 and 1992 she starred with Glynn Nicholas and Philip Scott in The Big Giggle, a stage version of the TV show. In 1995 Jean wrote and performed her own one-woman play Escape, and other theatre highlights include A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Night of the Missing Bridegroom and Behind the Mask. Jean also performed Love Letters with Glynn Nicholas for the Melbourne Arts Festival and revisited the role in 2003 at the Noosa Arts and Cultural Festival with the late Campbell McComas.
On radio Jean has been a writer and performer with Sydney's 2DAY FM, a regular guest on ABC's 702 with Richard Glover and a breakfast presenter with MIX 106.5.
Jean has amused audiences in print with columns in New Weekly magazine, the Sunday Telegraph magazine, and The (Sydney) Magazine, a monthly supplement with The Sydney Morning Herald. She has appeared in a number of television commercials and in 1998 published a collection of humorous observations titled Tongue Lashing which became a Penguin best-seller.
Jean has also appeared in many feature films, among them Bill Bennett's The Nugget in 2002, and Hating Alison Ashley in 2005, starring alongside Delta Goodrem.
Jean Kittson's performance and style have returned to the theatre. With a decade away from her much loved theatrical audiences, she has received wide acclaim with Mums the Word 2: Teenagers, the sequel to her famous play Mums the Word, playing around Australia.
Jean is one of the most in demand corporate performers equally at home as the most polished and creative master of ceremonies or the hilarious comedienne.
Entertaining Debates