Mary-Anne Fahey

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Mary-Anne Fahey
Born
Mary-Anne Waterman

(1955-08-19) 19 August 1955 (age 68)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupations
  • Actress
  • comedian
  • screenwriter
  • author
Years active1981–present
Spouse(s)Ian McFadyen
Morris Gleitzman (1994 – 2011)
Paul Jennings

Mary-Anne Fahey (born 19 August 1955 as Mary-Anne Waterman) credited also as Maryanne Fahey, is an Australian actress, comedian, screenwriter and children's author.

Career[edit]

Fahey has starred in and written for numerous TV and film comedy programs including The Comedy Company, Kittson Fahey, the first Australian female-only sketch comedy program, Get a Life and One Size Fits All. She had roles in Future Schlock, The Dunera Boys, All the Rivers Run II, Celia, Lucky Break and SeaChange. She has received roles in theatre including Mary Lives.

Fahey is most famous for her work on Channel Ten's The Comedy Company especially for her school girl character, Kylie Mole, and three-year-old "Jophesine", the Play School Sketches with Glenn Robbins and the "Bedscene" sketches with her then real-life husband Ian McFadyen.

In the 1980s she appeared in an advertisement for David Reid electronics, which was promoting the Commodore Amiga 500.

Kylie Mole[edit]

Fahey's Kylie Mole character—a scowling schoolgirl—was so popular she published the best-selling novel My Diary by Kylie Mole. She released a Double A-Side single with tracks "So Excellent"/"I Go, I Go", which hit #8 on the Australian ARIA chart in November 1988.[1] A music video for "So Excellent" was filmed. The Kylie Mole character was one of several iconic characters that appeared in the show. Her characterisation especially resonated with Australian youth. The Australian adoption of the word "bogan" was first popularised in the media by Kylie Mole, and other phrases she used gained a wider currency.

Later career[edit]

Fahey lives in Melbourne and is concentrating on writing and children's theatre. In May 2007,[2] she published her first children's novel, I, Nigel Dorking: An Autobiography about a Boy with an Unusual Vocabulary, a Suit of Armour and an Unshakeable Dream, Written by That Very Boy (Nigel Dorking), Grade Six (ISBN 0-143-30247-7 and ISBN 978-0-14-330247-6).[3][4]

Awards[edit]

Fahey won a 1989 Logie Award for "Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Personality" for her work on The Comedy Company. She has won an AWGIE Award[5] and an Irish-dancing trophy where she came second in a competition of two.[5]

Personal life[edit]

Fahey has two sons. Thomas Fahey, from her first marriage, and James McFadyen, born 12 July 1990. Fahey and Ian McFadyen split up in 1992. From 1994 until 2011 her partner was children's writer Morris Gleitzman.[6] He too has a background in comedy writing as a former writer for The Norman Gunston Show, and a satirical columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

From 2014, Fahey has been in a relationship with Paul Jennings, another children's book writer who had previously collaborated with Morris Gleitzman on two books series, Wicked and Deadly.[citation needed]

Filmography[edit]

Title Year Role
Cop Shop (TV series) 1981 Robyn Cain
Prisoner (TV series) 1983 Kelly Fraser
All the Rivers Run(TV miniseries) 1983 Hilda
The Keepers (TV series) 1984
Future Schlock 1984 Sarah
The Eleventh Hour (TV series) 1985 Various roles
The Dunera Boys (TV miniseries) 1985 Naomi Mendellsohn
The Great Bookie Robbery (TV miniseries) 1986 Cheryl
Rubbery Figures (TV series) Various Characters (voice) 1986
The Flying Doctors (TV series) 1988 Lisa Morgan
The Comedy Company (TV series) 1988-1990 Kylie Mole
The Gerry Connolly Show (TV series) 1988 various characters
Kylie Mole: So Excellent (Music Video) 1988 as Kylie Mole
Celia 1989 Pat Carmichael
All Together Now (TV series) 1991 Rivka Carpenter
Kittson Fahey (TV series) 1992-1993 Various
Crocodoo (TV series) 1993-1996 Gina
Blue Heelers (TV series) 1994 Sandra Lynch
Paperback Romance 1994 Myra
Get a Life 1997 Jackie Carter
Crocodoo II (TV sries) 1998 (voice as Maryanne Fahey)
Chuck Finn (TV series) 1999 Dr. McCorquodale
SeaChange (TV series) 2000 Kerry Philby (billed here asMaryanne Fahey)
One Size Fits All (TV series) 2000 Self - Various

References[edit]

  1. ^ "ARIA Awards Best Comedy Release". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  2. ^ Penguin Books (Australia) author bio for Mary-Anne Fahey
  3. ^ I, Nigel Dorking, book description & details
  4. ^ Book Review of I, Nigel Dorking: "My Life as a Loser", by Sue Bursztynski, June 2007. Accessed 11 August 2007.
  5. ^ a b Melbourne Writers' Festival 24Aug-2Sep 2007: Mary-Anne Fahey Information page Archived 1 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Fahey, Mary-Anne (7 May 2007). "Ask an author: Mary-Anne Fahey". The Age. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2007.

External links[edit]