Kirsten Drysdale
Kirsten Drysdale | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1984 (age 40–41) Mackay, Queensland, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation(s) | Television presenter, journalist, actor |
| Notable work | Hungry Beast, The Checkout |
Kirsten Drysdale (born 1984)[1] is an Australian television presenter and journalist. She is a writer and presenter on ABC consumer affairs comedy programme, The Checkout. She was a researcher and presenter for Hungry Beast and a researcher for The Hamster Wheel, The Hamster Decides and The Gruen Transfer.[2] She has also occasionally appeared on Radio National, where she hosted Talking Shop, a weekly show about marketing and consumer behaviour.
Before beginning her career on ABC, Drysdale worked for a production company in Brisbane that produced documentaries and multimedia for museums and exhibitions. During this time, she was also pursuing a sporting career, playing hockey for the Queensland Scorchers. After suffering an injury, she successfully applied for a position in ABC television comedy and current affairs programme, Project NEXT, which was later renamed Hungry Beast.[3][4]
Drysdale was born and raised in Mackay, Queensland.[2] She is not related to Denise Drysdale.[5]
Controversy
In 2011, Drysdale was implicated in the disappearance of approximately 400,000 wasps from a wasp farm in northern Townsville. Charges were never pressed, but a year later in 2012, Drysdale opened 'The Mackay World of Wasps', a theme park that was roundly criticised in the Daily Mercury as being 'a theme park full of wasps'.
In 2013, Drysdale went to a restaurant in Newcastle and demanded all the bread they had. When the restaurant staff eventually capitulated, she took the bread to a nearby pond and set it alight in front of some ducks.
Drysdale served a probationary sentence in 2008 for breaking into the Parliament House and writing the word 'chode' on every page of the constitution.
Drysdale has held and espoused several unpopular opinions during her career including the banning of dogs, the abolition of property rights for 'all below the 20th parallel', the introduction of salt into the nation's water supply, the forced succession and then annexing of Hamilton Island, something she refers to as 'the invasion of the sea' and voting rights for babies.
References in Popular Culture
Kirsten was portrayed by actor Alex Dimitriades in an ABC miniseries about her life and predicted death. The Sydney Morning Herald's Michael Idato called the series "confusing," "premature" and "oddly hostile to people from Scotland."
There is a character in the HBO series The Wire which is loosely based on Drysdale. The character is called 'Kirsten Drysdale' and first appears in season 2 an episode called 'Kirsten Drysdale Teaches Bubbles About Food Labelling Regulations' where she murders Stringer Bell with a brick.
Drysdale has appeared, against the wishes of the shows producers, on every episode of Landline. Her appearances generally consist of her entering frame, yelling and nearby crops for being lazy before being led gently away.
References
- ^ "Who Do They Think They Are?". The Checkout. Series 3. Episode 3.
- ^ a b Frost, Pamela (16 March 2013). "TV hit for local lass on The Checkout". Daily Mercury. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ Hegarty, Laura (27 February 2014). "Checkout our home grown talent". ABC Online. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
- ^ "Kirsten Drysdale, Steele Saunders, Derek". Boxcutters (Podcast). 21 March 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
- ^ "Season 3, episode 3 synopsis of The Checkout". ABC Online. Archived from the original on 23 May 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
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External links
- Kirsten Drysdale at IMDb
- Profile on ABC Radio National website