Anna
Daniels

From a 'ridiculously bad' radio interview with Russell Crowe that ended up winning the ABC's ‘Comedy Segment of the Year Award’, to presenting on The Project, and recently being cast in Bluey as Janelle aka “Lucky's Mum”, Anna Daniels is a journalist, TV presenter, and writer, and a master at turning things around and sharing inspiring stories.

Growing up as one of five children in Rockhampton, the Beef Capital of Australia, Anna’s points of difference are her country background, her humour, her relatability and vibrancy, and her ability to hang in there with positivity and hope when times get tough!

With her laidback warmth, energy, and inspirational messages of resilience; taking leaps of faith; creating your own opportunities and transforming negatives into positives, Anna connects with audiences to realise their full potential.

Anna is currently playing the role of “Janelle” Lucky’s Mum on the much-loved kid’s series Bluey. Janelle is the NSW State of Origin Blues-loving Labrador retriever and made her debut in the ‘Pass the Parcel’ episode before she belted out those hilarious lines in ‘The Decider’ episode as the footy-mad lone NSW supporter! Anna says “It’s such a joyous celebratory show of Australian culture, and obviously incredibly popular”.

Anna’s refreshing sense of humour has been entertaining us for several years as a presenter on The Project. From sailing aboard the Queen Mary 2; joining an outback postie on one of Australia’s longest mail-runs, to reporting from Beef Week in Rockhampton, and presenting live from The Project desk in Melbourne, Anna’s highly entertaining segments have been a hit with both urban and rural audiences.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism from QUT in Brisbane, Anna has written, presented and produced exciting content for some of Australia’s and the UK’s highest-rating programs. In addition to presenting her own stories for The Project, she produced Red Symons’ Breakfast Program on ABC Radio Melbourne, presented for the popular Channel 7 travel show Queensland Weekender, and produced the BBC One series John Bishop’s Australia, featuring the UK comedian, John Bishop.

In 2004, as a junior ABC rural reporter, Anna knew she could not air her nerve-racked and error-ridden 40 minute-interview with superstar Russell Crowe. Then, in a stroke of genius, she edited the interview and turned the calamity into comic relief.
“It turned out to be ridiculous and funny and won the ABC’s ‘Comedy Segment of the Year Award’,’’ Anna says. “It’s always been a good reminder to me of how you can take a potentially disastrous situation and turn it into a positive.’’
With a great passion for comedy, Anna kicked off her presenting career with the ABC, co-winning the network’s Comedy Segment of the Year Award for her radio interview with Russell Crowe. She then went on to co-create the ABC’s first online comedy series, ’Tough at the Top’, set in Darwin, with Melbourne comedian Anne Edmonds. Winning national comedy awards, the Tough at the Top sketches continue to be a hit on YouTube.
In 2016, Anna’s debut novel, Girl in Between, was shortlisted for the Vogel Awards and was published by Allen & Unwin in 2017. Girl in Between has become one of Australia’s bestselling debuts, and has recently been reprinted in Australia, and released by Random House in Germany.
She is currently working on her own kid's TV show idea with production company, Northern Pictures, and has hopes to adapt ‘Girl In Between’ for TV.