Julia Zemiro

Julia Zemiro
Julia Zemiro at the ARIA Hall of Fame, Melbourne, 1 July 2008
Born	1967 Aix-en-Provence, France
Residence	Melbourne
Nationality	Australian
Years active	1999–present

Julia Zemiro (born 1967 in Aix-en-Provence, France) is an Australian television presenter, radio host, actor, singer and comedian.

Early life

Zemiro's father Claude was a French waiter and cook, and her Australian mother Jane was a teacher from Queensland. In 1970, she moved to Australia at the age of two and a half. She attended Sydney Girls High School before studying for a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney. Zemiro was accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts Drama School before completing her final year, and moved to Melbourne in 1992.

Acting

Zemiro graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1993 and found work touring with the Bell Shakespeare Company. She has featured in short films including The Extra and Muffled Love, winning the Tropfest Best Actress award twice, in 1997 and 2000. She co-wrote, performed and directed Backpackers.

Zemiro appeared as "Bronya" in Eurovision, the Musical (2003), Euromax 7 The Musical (2004) and Eürobeat: Almost Eurovision (2006).

A long-time Theatresports veteran, Zemiro played at the Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, for many years before her move to Melbourne. She is currently a performer with Impro Melbourne,^{[citation needed]} starring in their annual season of Celebrity Theatresports and regularly appears in their Melbourne International Comedy Festival hit, "Late Nite Impro". She is a core cast member of the improvised stage show Spontaneous Broadway.

Television

Zemiro first appeared as a television presenter as the host of World Telly 2, an international co-production devised by broadcaster and journalist Scott Watkins-Sully. She previously appeared in the original World Telly as part of an improvised comedy group. The World Telly programmes were broadcast by ABC Australia Television, the ABC's original but now defunct venture into international satellite broadcasting.

During her time with the Bell Shakespeare Company, Zemiro became a regular panellist and debater for Good News Week as well as a writer and performer for two season on Totally Full Frontal in which she played over 30 characters.

Since 2005, she has hosted RocKwiz on SBS, a music quiz show usually recorded at The Espy.

Subsequently, Zemiro has enjoyed a variety of performances on television. She appeared in an episode of CNNNN as the host of "Animal Farm". She was a judge on LifeStyle Food's Great BBQ Challenge in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, she appeared on the comedy show The Wedge as various characters.

In May/June 2006, Zemiro hosted the one-off SBS series Song for the Socceroos, a talent show in search of a theme song for the Australian Socceroos soccer team during their bid for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The group Freedom of Thought won the competition with their song "Green And Gold".

In 2007, Zemiro appeared in and won Australia's Brainiest TV Star. The same year, she was a contestant on Channel Seven's It Takes Two, paired with Dave Gleeson; they were the fourth pair to be eliminated.

Zemiro has appeared in television commercials, including as a satiric French fashion expert called Fifi La Croix for Target's breast cancer campaign. She appeared as a guest in the third episode of Top Gear Australia and in 2009 on ADbc. She appeared as a frequent participant on Thank God You're Here. In 2011, she appeared in the final episode of The Bazura Project's Guide To Sinema as a fake chat show host.

Together with 3RRR radio personality Sam Pang, Zemiro has acted as a commentator for the SBS broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contests in 2009 in Moscow, in 2010 in Oslo, Norway, and in 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

External links

• Julia Zemiro at the Internet Movie Database
• "Macbeth" by Daniel Ziffer, The Age (20 July 2004)
• Melbourne Stage Online interview with Julia Zemiro