Young Talent Time

Rob Mills

Rob Mills

Host - Young Talent Time

Rob Mills is a born entertainer...
Rob first came to the nation’s attention in 2003 when he came 5th in the first series of the phenomenon that was “Australian Idol”.

Following this success and the huge national Idol Tour he was signed to BMG, his first single Ms. Vanity debuted at #6 on the Australian charts, reaching Gold status. His debut album Up All Night was released in June 2004, featuring seven co-written tracks.
GREASE – The Arena Spectacular was yet another chapter for the many talents of Rob Mills, taking to the stage as the pop star idol “JOHNNY CASINO” delighting audiences around Australia throughout May and June 2005. This GFO production awakened Rob’s love for musical theatre.
After a well earned trip around Europe in 2006, Rob arrived back to step straight back into various corporate, radio and music performance and guest spots including Channel 9’s AFL Grand Final Breakfast, Carols by Candelight, The Singing Bee and What’s Up Downunder and the ABC,s “Spicks & Specks” & “Myles Barlow Project”
May 2007 saw Rob back on the stage in the lead role of CLAUDE in the Perth production of HAIR which won rave reviews and a sold out season.
Rob follows his passion. When he first heard the music from WICKED he vowed to be a part of the show when it came to Australia. He was thrilled to be cast in the role of FIYERO in this highly successful Broadway Musical and played over 500 shows in Melbourne & Sydney to over 750,000 people and rave reviews establishing himself as one of Australia’s favourite leading men.


Rob discovered the contemporary New York playwright ‘Jason Robert Brown’ and staying true to his passion worked hard to be cast as “Jamie” in his favourite JRB musical “The Last Five Years”. With ‘Marika Aubrey” as his ‘Cathy’ they played to rave reviews and a sold out season at The Reg in Sydney.


Another passion is young talent and Rob is both thrilled and excited to be announced as the Host of the 2012 remake of the Australian Television Family Favorite “Young Talent Time”.

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Tina Arena

Tina Arena

Judge - Young Talent Time

Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena (born 1 November 1967)[] is an Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress. She has won many awards, most notably 6 ARIA Awards and in both 1996 and 2000 she received the World Music Award for the world's best selling Australian artist. She has sold over eight million records worldwide to date.

 

Tina was born to Italian migrants, Giuseppe and Franca Arena, living in the Melbourne suburb of East Keilor, Victoria. She has two sisters, Nancy and Silvana. Her family calls her Pina which evolved into her stage name, Tina. Arena
In 1974 (- 1983) Tina began her career as a 7-year-old, singing live on the variety television show Young Talent Time. Even as a young girl she was known for her powerful voice and stage presence, but she dropped from sight for several years following her Young Talent Time tenure, working the club circuit alone and in bands and also appearing in musicals.
Tina broke the stigma of a boom to bust TV based career with a succession of outstanding albums released throughout the 90’s, figure-headed by the international hit Chains from her acclaimed album Don’t Ask (1995). Don’t Ask sold millions of copies world wide including 10 x Platinum in Australia.
In December 1995, Arena married her manager Ralph Carr. In 1999 they divorced. In 2000, Arena began dating French artist Vincent Mancini, sometimes credited as Vincent Hare. Together, they have a son Gabriel Joseph, born 17 November 2005. The family travel between France, Australia and the UK but have been based in Paris since 2008.
Tina has performed with Chaka Kahn, Stevie Wonder and Donna Summer, but it was her collaboration with Mark Anthony on ‘Spend My Lifetime loving You’ from the Mask of Zorro soundtrack that gave her a new kind of European success. The duet tipped the scales in France where both song and the movie were huge hits.

Tina’s follow-up single Aller Plus Haut, was her first ever French language recording. It sold over a million copies and permanently endeared her to a French audience who to this day continue to embrace the Australian/Italian chanteuse as their own.

John Foreman –YTT Musical director wrote The Flame, which was performed by Tina Arena and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Her performance of ‘The Flame’ in Sydney 2000 Olympics was certainly a watershed moment in a career that was already beyond its’ second decade.

Tina has also continued appear in musicals such as Notre Dame de Paris, Sam Mendes’ Cabaret as Sally Bowles and more recently in the West End production of Chicago: The Musical.

Tina’s release of her first all French language album Un Autre Univers. The album served as yet another Platinum milestone with the hit single Aimer Jusqu’a l’Impossible and Je m’appelle Bagdad redefining play lists in many Francophile territories.  

In 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will present Tina with the Knighthood of the Order of National Merit, the second highest civil honour in France. The award was granted for her service to French culture.

And, never forgetting her homeland, on the eve of Cadel Evans Tour de France win in July 2011, Tina contacted race officials and offered to sing the Australian national anthem in Paris.
Discography
Tina’s discography consists of eight studio albums, thirty-five CD singles, three live albums and two DVDs, as of January 2010.
In 1990 she released her debut album Strong as Steel through EMI, which included the hit single "I Need Your Body". Arena was not comfortable with the image she was being portrayed as so she then went to find another record deal.
She found a record deal with the record label Columbia Records. Her second album, Don't Ask, was then created with producer David Tyson. It became her highest selling album with 2 million copies sold worldwide.
She has sold approximately 8 million records worldwide to date. In France, she has sold over 2 million singles and 1.3 million albums. In Australia, she has sold around 1.5 million albums and 489,600 singles.

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Talkin' Bout Your Generation

Shaun Micallef

Shaun Micallef

Host of Talkin' 'bout Your Generation

Spawned in the city of serial killers and churches in 1962, Shaun Patrick Micallef’s beginnings as a motor insurance lawyer provided the perfect grounding for comedy.

Expertly equipped to handle a room full of competitive, snarling egomaniacs engaged in petty one-upmanship and point scoring, he is now the irreverent and slightly crazy host of TVs Talkin’ Bout Your Generation

Auspicious comedy beginnings on Theatre Sports (1987), The Big Gig (1989) and Jimeoin (1994) led to Micallef joining the cast of sketch show Full Frontal (1994-96), where he created popular characters Milo Kerrigan, Nobby Doldrums and a send-up of Italian male model Fabio.  

But Shaun’s own shows awaited – ABC TV’s award-winning The Micallef Program (1998-2001), sitcom Welcher & Welcher (2003) and the variety show Micallef Tonight (2003). Two Logies and an ARIA later, and in 2007-08 Micallef turned his hand to current affairs in the ‘squint-and-you’ll-think-it’s-real’ world news regurg with oblique editorial, funny voices and music hall characterizations – Newstopia – for SBS. 

Having trodden the boards on stage, lit up the screen in film (Bad Eggs, The Honorable Wally Norman, The Extra) and TV (SeaChange, Through My Eyes) and lent his dulcet if somewhat warped tones to radio station Vega in Melbourne, the published author and all round funny guy has cemented himself as one of the most loved faces (and bodies, too) in Australian entertainment.  

Now, like an action blockbuster sequel, he’s back – better budgeted than ever – on the best network in the world (of the week) ever: Network Ten. Helming inter-generational fight to the death Talkin’ Bout Your Generation, Micallef promises to be fair, impartial and easily bribed. Believe it. A second series – and a team of jaded and financially desperate production staff – depend on it.

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Amanda Keller

Team Leader of Talkin' 'bout Your Generation

After the initial shock at being referred to as a Baby Boomer, Amanda has decided to embrace her inner oldie. Let’s face it, at 47 she’s the media version of the Rosetta stone, and has seen more pilots than all the world’s airlines combined. 

Amanda’s television career began as a producer's assistant on Simon Townsend's Wonder World and she hasn't looked back. In 1985 Amanda became a regular on-air reporter on Ray Martin's Midday Show but it was Beyond 2000 that made her a household name. During her six years on the program she reported from all over the world and garnered a stack of awards. In 1994 Amanda’s career took on a whole new dimension when her mischievous sense of humour and quick wit were revealed on Channel Seven’s The Denton Show. This partnership with Andrew Denton continued on radio — they shared a 5-year stint as one of the country’s leading breakfast radio duos on Triple M. Amanda went on to host ABC TV’s Mondo Thingo, but was lured back to brekkie radio, where she continues to enjoy success with co-host Jonesy at Sydney’s WSFM.

Amanda has played a starring role in SBS’s comedy Swift and Shift Couriers, has published a book, Amanda's Handy Home Hints, and her most treasured possession is a box filled with the heads of Farrah Fawcett dolls. Now putting the boom back into Boomer, she promises to keep a hanky tucked up the sleeve of her spencer.

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Charlie Pickering

Team Leader of Talkin' 'bout Your Generation

Edgy, polished and inventive, 31-year-old Charlie is not only one of the most exciting names in Australian comedy, he’s also the show’s resident “Rain Man” in terms of possessing a supernatural knowledge of irrelevant, pop culture trivia. 

Since his beginnings performing solo stand up in Melbourne in 2000, our Generation X-er has built a reputation as a quality performer, a talented host and a natural storyteller. He’s performed internationally at festivals and on TV in South Africa, NZ and the UK, and been nominated for a stack of awards. 

2008 was a ripper for Charlie — with sold out festival shows, creating and co-hosting fictional TV news show The Mansion on the Comedy Channel, hosting Channel V’s unique game-show CashCab, and co-hosting weekend breakfast show Toast on Triple M.

As if he hasn’t been busy enough, Charlie has just received rapturous applause — from his family and others — for his 2009 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show “The Audacity of Frank” (based on his grandpa Frank). His first book Impractical Jokes is also about to be released. 

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Josh Thomas

Team Leader of Talkin' 'bout Your Generation

Despite having the Australian comedy industry abuzz, 22-year-old Josh describes himself as “not very good at things, quite clumsy, not good at computer games, but quite good at talking to large groups of people about genitals”. He is also a self-proclaimed “very generous lover”. 

In 2005, aged just 17, Brisbane-based Josh was the youngest ever winner of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s RAW Comedy Competition, plus made the finals of the Edinburgh equivalent So You Think You’re Funny. He thought he was the King of the World. His next gig was in a scary ‘you-might-actually-die-when-they-stab-you’ style tavern in front of 12 comics and a man sitting at the bar crying into his beer.

Josh was named Best Newcomer at the 2007 MICF for his show Please Like Me. That same year, he built a reputation for wearing cardigans, however not wanting to be type cast he then moved into V-neck knitted sweaters in 2008.

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