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Tania Jane Lacy is an Australian comedian.

Early life and education

Originally from Toowoomba, Queensland, Lacy spent many of her early years travelling with her family. Her father, then an officer in the army, was posted to Singapore (where Lacy was actually born) twice and Lacy spent a few years at Army schools.

Career

Ballet and choreography

It was in Toowoomba that Lacy attended her first ballet class and very early on exhibited some degree of talent. It wasn't until the family had settled in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs in the late 70's that Lacy was able to attend ballet classes again. She pursued the art vigorously and at the age of 12 was accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts School of Dance. Lacy decided not to attend instead opting to complete her education at a normal high school whilst pursuing her dance training after school hours. She completed her HSC in 1983 and was again accepted into the VCA for a full-time tertiary education. During her second year Lacy suffered a serious blow to her career plans when she sustained a severe knee injury in a dancing accident. After one year of rehabilitation Lacy found that her ballet career was effectively over.

Lacy then set out on a career as a choreographer. She choreographed many fashion parades in and around Melbourne and many of today's top Australian designers such as Bettina Liano, Peter Alexander and Alannah Hill had Lacy choreograph their parades.

It was during a taping for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Lacy was spotted and asked to choreograph and appear in Kylie Minogue's first clip The Loco-Motion in 1987.

Television

Later that same year while dancing on Countdown, Lacy was spotted by Molly Meldrum who asked Lacy to open the show - her performance led to a job on a new show, The Factory on which she appeared weekly as roving reporter. Under the guidance of producers Neill Wilson and James Lipscombe, Lacy began to develop her own characters and sketches. In 1989 the ABC axed The Factory. At the same time, the series Countdown was reworked as Countdown Revolution which was produced by Molly Meldrum. In 1990, Lacy was made a host of the show alongside comedian Mark Little. Later that year, Mark and Tania were fired from the show, when, unimpressed with lip-synching performers on the show, they staged a mock strike, which backfired.

Lacy went on to make appearances on Steve Vizard's Tonight Live but eventually found a home at Channel 9 where she initially starred on a show called Saturday at Ricks. When that show ended Lacy made many humorous appearance on shows like Midday.

In 2006 and 2007, Lacy starred in the internet/mobile web series called Girl Friday where she plays Miss Mann.

From 29 to 31 October 2007, Lacy appeared as a sexy Barrister Catherine Michael on Neighbours.

Several of Lacy’s characters, such as ‘Carlos the Latin Lover’ and ‘Annette the Librarian’ are part of Australian entertainment culture.

The stage

After a period at Nine, Lacy left to pursue her own projects. She staged a one-woman, sell-out show entitled All of Me which was premiered at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and then toured it to Sydney and Brisbane. Later the show went to the Edinburgh Comedy Festival where Tania was nominated for a Best Newcomer Award and was shortlisted for the Perrier Award.

Short films

Lacy also went on to star in a number of short films such as Titsiana Booberini, which she also wrote. The film received much international acclaim, scoring the director, Robert Luketic, a three-picture deal. She also wrote and starred in Pussy Got Your Tongue? which won her the Nicole Kidman Best Actress award at Tropfest in 1997. Later that year she starred with Ben Mendelsohn in Tangerine Dream, winning the Best Actress Award at the Watch My Shorts Festival.

In 2000, Lacy went to Los Angeles where she staged a one-woman show entitled Suburban Refugee - it did an extended run at Theatre Theater in Hollywood. It was during this time that Lacy met her now-husband, Ole Sturm.

Writing

Since returning to Australia in 2001, Lacy staged another one-woman show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival entitled Tania Lacy is Coo Coo Bananas, but more recently she has remained out of the spotlight, focusing instead on the development of various film and TV scripts for local production company, MoodyStreet Kids, amongst them her Virtually Kitty film and a TV series she has developed with Miho Suzuki Gollings.

Lacy was also approached by publisher Scholastic to write a book series for young girls. Her first book "Tracy Lacy is Completely Coo Coo Bananas" was released in 2016, followed shortly after by "Tracy Lacy for Class Captain" in 2017.

Credits

Television

As writer

Film

As writer

Stage

TVC

Awards

Personal life

After she was fired from Countdown Revolution in 1990, Lacy's career came to a standstill and she turned to heroin and alcohol. She underwent a stint in rehab in 1994, and was also diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. However, after her diagnosis, she began writing scripts and developing new characters.

Lacy met her future husband, German motion graphics designer Ole Sturm in Los Angeles in 2000. She was performing in her one-woman show, Suburban Refugee, and he was working on Mission: Impossible 2. They were married in the Hollywood Hills in November 2000 and then returned to Melbourne, where their son, Per, was born in December 2005.

In 2008, when Per was three, Lacy was diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder.

Lacy and Sturm moved to Berlin, Germany, and after six years, returned to Australia, mid-Covid pandemic, settling in Cairns, far north Queensland.

Lacy started studying law after she moved to Cairns.

Legal issues / controversies

The much-lauded short film Titsiana Booberini was the source of a bitter legal case over authorship between Lacy, director Robert Luketic (who went on to direct Legally Blonde) and Miramax. Lacy claims she wrote the film and created the character of Titsiana, but Luketic claims he wrote it. Lacy says she turned down the offer of a settlement from Miramax, demanding instead to be credited as writer and creator. The dispute remains unresolved.

A segment of The Factory that never went to air had Lacy and her film crew dressed up as Mick Hucknall from Simply Red and attempt to get backstage at the band's concert. They made it through security and wandered around until they passed Mick himself – who had them ejected and threatened to sue the ABC, who were forced to issue a public apology.

References

1. https://instinctmusic.com.au/live-entertainment/tania-lacy/
2. "Tania Lacey - My First Idol". Meshel Laurie's Nitty Gritty Committee. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
3. https://www.newidea.com.au/celebrity/tania-lacy-heroin-shame/
4. http://www.australiantelevision.net/pigsbreakfast_eps.html
5. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-east/tania-lacys-battles-with-mental-illness-are-no-laughing-matter/news-story/9edf507830a12cfb5b5faeb1e0b3f6e8
6. https://amp.theguardian.com/stage/2021/aug/13/tania-lacy-review-edinburgh-fringe
7. https://issuu.com/adelaidefringe/docs/23_ofg_digital_62mb
8. https://www.nafa-tsv.com.au/_uploads/fckeditor/NAFA2022_Program_FA_186wx268h_digital_spread.pdf
9. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/farnorth-saturday-breakfast/everythings-coming-up-roses-for-tania-lacy/101959158
10. https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/247057
11. https://actors.bbfc-cloud.de/en/actors/tania-lacy
12. https://instinctmusic.com.au/live-entertainment/tania-lacy/
13. https://www.newidea.com.au/celebrity/tania-lacy-heroin-shame/
14. "That was then, this is now". The Age. 28 February 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2014. A typical day involves beavering away on her laptop in a St Kilda cafe before rushing off to pick up her four-year-old son with German husband Ole Sturm.
15. https://www.newidea.com.au/celebrity/tania-lacy-heroin-shame/
16. https://thephoenixremix.com/2023/07/22/funny-at-the-fringe-interview-tania-lacy-everythings-coming-up-roses/
17. https://www.3knd.org.au/post/iconic-and-dearly-loved-funny-woman-tania-lacey-talks-about-her-upcoming-show-coming-up-roses
18. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/that-was-then-this-is-now-20100305-po6g.html
19. https://theclothesline.com.au/tania-lacy-everythings-coming-up-roses-adelaide-fringe-2022-interview/

External links

• Official website
• Official Girl Friday website
• Tania Lacy at IMDb

• Australian women comedians
• 1965 births
• Living people
• People from Toowoomba
• People with borderline personality disorder
• Entertainers from Victoria (state)