Winner of Female Comedian of the Decade at the 2010 NZ Comedy Guild Awards, Michele A’Court is a stand-up comedian, MC, writer and social commentator.
MC & Comedian
Michele has been working as a corporate MC and entertainer for more than 20 years - and in this current climate is using her skills as a television host (dating back more than three decades) in the online environment, giving Zoom meetings and webinars a professional flourish.
Her international experience as a stand-up comedian includes work in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor. She won the VAC Reilly Award for Excellence in Comedy in 2015. She regularly tours solo comedy shows around New Zealand - everywhere from opera houses to community halls.
In the 2022 New Year Honours, Michele was recognised for her services to the entertainment and comedy industries and becomes an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM).
Television & Radio
Michele first came to the nation’s attention as the host of “What Now” in the 1980s, and has worked on screen ever since, most recently as a regular guest host on Three’s primetime show, “The Project”. She has made regular appearances on the hit comedy show “7Days” since it began in 2009.
Michele is a frequent voice on RNZ National’s “Nine to Noon” and “The Panel” and is a sought-after contributor on commercial radio. She also co-hosts “On The Rag”, a monthly podcast hosted by The Spinoff, plus a monthly video series of the same name funded by NZ On Air.
Writer
Originally trained as a journalist, she wrote a weekly newspaper column from 2008 to 2019 on current social issues for Stuff. She continues to work as a freelance writer for a variety of publications.
Michele has written two bestselling books: “Stuff I Forgot To Tell My Daughter” (2015) and “How We Met” (2018) both published by Harper Collins.
Community
Michele is the Patron of “The Aunties”, a grassroots charity for women and children in need. She is also Patron of the Moving & Handling Association of NZ (MHANZ) which cares for carers in the health sector. Michele is a proud member of Actors’ Equity, and a Life Member of the NZ Comedy Guild.
Talking Points
Keynote: Living Out Loud
“The two best words are ‘courage’ and ‘encourage’ - you find one, then do the other.”Keynote: Living Out Loud
Writer and comedian, Michele A’Court, delivers an uplifting keynote about all the things she’s learnt so far about what success and joy can look like for each of us. As she steps now into what she cheerfully calls her “elderhood”, she has stories for all of us about leadership, finding your voice, rebellion, and aging disgracefully. An hour of wisdom and laughter.
Michele more than fulfilled our expectations as a keynote Speaker - she captured the audience, constructed her speech/performance around issues relevant to the Charitable Trust involved and ... keep reading Friends of True Colours
Michele always exceeds our expectations. The audience love, love, loved her! We would use her for all our jobs if we could get away with it!
The audience loved Michele and has been repeating some of her jokes and comments. Michele was very professional and easy to work with.
Michele was a delight to have and I have had many emails and calls to say what a great choice we had made. She could really read the audience and her lovely bright personality made her popular with everyone. She helped to make our evening a great success.
Michele held the attention of the audience throughout her presentation. The audience reaction was very positive - a good mixture of wisdom and humour.
Michele was a brilliant choice for our group of Retail Managers. She is witty, fun but also very professional. Highly recommend her! The audience thought she was brilliant. She kept them alive and excited.
Michele was superb - her humour and professionalism made the night a success and she is so lovely to deal with.
Michele added a lot of value to the evening in her role as MC at our event. She entertained the audience while also managing to keep the evening flowing. She is warm and friendly as well as being very professional.
We needed light entertainment and relief from a day of conferencing and Michelle found the funny spot in all of us. Michele was enjoyed by all and stayed for a drink afterwards where many took the opportunity to talk to her.
We really liked Michele. She called two days before my event to go over certain details. She arrived in plenty of time and delivered well. In a way she is like a ‘sure bet’. You know she will just plain deliver the goods which means as an event organiser, it’s one less thing to worry and bite your finger nails over. You just cannot fault her at all."
Michele was just an absolute dream to work with, professional, funny, approachable and very adaptable to whatever we needed her to address - just can’t say enough! We have used Michele twice for 2 very different events and she is just fantastic!
Michele was outstanding again. We had a more complicated show this year, with 3 stages for her to perform across (including one where she had to present 'in-the-round’). She pulled it off with flair. The audience had a great night, were thoroughly entertained, and Michele managed to hold their attention all night - which you know we've had difficulty with (with this crowd)! She has been a pleasure to work with throughout the planning and production. Nothing is too much trouble, and she’s really engaged in making sure the show works.
Michele was great as always. She is such a professional and her sense of humour is always well received. I would definitely use Michele again.
Michele was fantastic. Kept the day moving and exactly to schedule. Provided the right amount of humour and helped keep everyone going through what was a long day of presentations
This is the second year we have had Michele as our MC. We were so impressed with her last year we knew we had to have her again. She is amazing!
Thank you very much for your outstanding MCing. Frankly, it was all I could ask for and I’m very grateful that you made it all so easy for me. I particularly enjoyed the light touch you brought to the event, and the summing-up at the end was fantastic. It’s been a very long time since we had such a professional MC and I appreciate the time and effort you put in to make it flow so perfectly. The feedback from delegates has been excellent. Thanks once again for your very large part in the event’s success and I hope to work with you again in the future!
Highly entertaining - fits so well with our crowd! Reads the audience well, adds the humour for on the spot moments. Really works the room and includes the audience. Awesome!
A huge thank you for an artistic and fantastic night, with your role delivered with flair and creativity. Our 410 guests had a ball, you were a great MC and read our audience exceptionally well with exactly the right mix of humour and professionalism, bestowing glowing accolades for our worthy winners.
Michele was a real professional - prior to the event and on the night. She was very easy to liaise with and most of all, she ‘got’ the nature of the event. She stuck to the brief, her material was appropriate, and she was an excellent MC - engaging with the audience and keeping things on-track. The feedback from the attendees has been exceptional - we had a fabulous night and Michele was a significant part in bringing it all together and ensuring its success. We would definitely look at using her again and recommending her to others.
Warm, lovely, professional, funny, engaging.
Michele was GREAT! She fitted in so wonderfully. Michele was so warm and positive with everyone involved in the event and really helped what at times was quite a high pressure situation. So Michele was great to have around in the same room for three days! Her MC-ing was also very high quality and her comments completely appropriate for the subject and audience. Michele had really great energy about her. We have had really positive feedback to date (although survey results yet to be finalised), so I'm sure she was incredibly popular with the audience. Thank you Michele!
Michele A'Court was the MC and entertainer at our recent conference. She was friendly and approachable as well as being a very entertaining speaker. If you are looking for a speaker who engages her audience and has them falling off their chairs with laughter, she is a great choice!
We really appreciated how Michele worked with our material and used her knowledge and experience to weave through it seamlessly and beautifully. She kept the audience under control really well in an environment that can get quite rowdy! We would definitely book Michele again.
