Wendy Harmer (born Wendy Brown) is an Australian author, children's writer, playwright and dramatist, radio show host, comedian, and television personality.
Harmer was born in Yarram and grew up in small country towns in Victoria, including Warncoort, Selby, California Gully, Freshwater Creek and Geelong, where she studied journalism at the Gordon Institute of TAFE and Deakin University and became a reporter at the Geelong Advertiser.
Harmer's journalistic career took her to Melbourne, where she worked for The Sun News-Pictorial newspaper on the rounds of transport, urban affairs and state politics.
As an arts feature writer, she was introduced to a comedy group performing at the Flying Trapeze comedy venue. This group included Ian McFadyen, Mary-Anne Fahey and Peter Moon.
Harmer left The Sun News-Pictorial and worked part-time at the Melbourne Times newspaper and began working in her days off as a stand-up comedian. She is acknowledged as the first Australian woman to enter the all-male domain of stand-up comedy in the 2015 ABC TV series Stop Laughing This is Serious.
Not long afterwards, Harmer was headlining her own shows at the Last Laugh theatre restaurant, owned by entrepreneur John Pinder and later by Rick McKenna. The shows included Faking It, Sunburn Bloody Sunburn, and Sunburn the Day After, which included the group from the Flying Trapeze and, among others, Mark Neale, Richard Stubbs, and Steve Vizard.
Harmer was on the board of the first ever Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 1987 which featured Barry Humphries and Peter Cook. She has also served on the boards of the Belvoir Theatre and the Malthouse.
She first appeared on television in the ABC children's show Trap, Winkle and Box. She then joined the satirical political TV series The Gillies Report, along with John Clarke, Phillip Scott, Tracy Harvey, Patrick Cook and Jean Kittson.
Harmer went on to host ABC TV's, The Big Gig, including, among others, performers Glynn Nicholas, Rod Quantock, Greg Fleet, Jean Kittson and the Doug Anthony All Stars.
She also hosted her own ABC TV talk series In Harmer's Way, with comedians Greg Fleet, Andrew Goodone, Simon Rogers and Tim Smith.
Harmer performed at the Edinburgh Festival on four occasions: First with a two-handed stand-up show Harmer and Stubbs with Richard Stubbs. Also with the Australian Government's 1988 OZNOST troupe which included Magda Szubanski, Rod Quantock, Gina Riley, Kate Ceberano and Circus Oz. She also took her one-woman show Love Gone Wrong to the festival where it was awarded "Pick of the Fringe" and was transferred to a theatre in London's West End for a limited season. Her fourth outing was as a solo stand-up comic.
She wrote, performed and sang in two one-woman shows with musicians - Love Gone Wrong and Please Send More Money which was directed by Nigel Triffit. Harmer also appeared on the Ben Elton show Friday Night Live with Dame Edna Everage and the Doug Anthony Allstars.
Her stand up days were recalled in a 2015 episode of the ABC TV series Home Delivery hosted by Julia Zemiro. Her episode was advertised as a "moving account of her life"
Harmer also appeared in Australian Story Operation Wendy in 2005 in which she travelled to Fiji with the team from Interplast.
Harmer's performed her one-woman stand-up show Up Late and Loving It at the Sydney's Wharf Theatre in 2001.
She performed at the 2016 30th anniversary of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Harmer also had her own TV chat show in 1990, In Harmer's Way, and co-starred in the World Series Debate with Andrew Denton from 1993 to 1994. Harmer hosted the Logie Awards of 2002, and was caught up in widespread media criticism of the event, with some focusing on her personal performance. In 2005, Harmer was the subject of an ABC Australian Story episode. Stuff, a four-part television documentary series which Harmer produced, wrote, and presented, premiered on ABC TV in 2008. The same year, Harmer commenced writing for the animated series Pearlie, based on her series of books. Harmer wrote many of the episodes, acted as a creative producer on the series, and even made a cameo appearance as Astrid the Dream Fairy.
