Tom Ballard Biography
Tom Ballard is a radio and television personality from Australia. Ballard backed the Victorian Socialists for the 2018 Victorian State Election on September 23.
How old is Tom Ballard? – Age
He is 33 years old as of 26 November 2022. He was born in 1989 in Warrnambool, Australia. His real name is Thomas Colin Ballard.
Tom Ballard Family – Education
Ballard was born to parents Judy and Neil Ballard. He graduated from Brauer Secondary College in 2007 as School Captain and Dux, with an Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank of 99.80 in his Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). As a result, he was named the South West Region’s dux. He then pursued a brief legal education at Monash University.
Tom Ballard Partner
Ballard is a gay man. His first lover was comedian Josh Thomas, who described Ballard as “much more assertively open, gay, and earnest.” When their two-and-a-half-year romance ended in 2010, Thomas went on tour with his show Surprise, which was “all about being young, gay, and in love for the first time.” The next year, Ballard’s show, Since 1989, opened at the Belvoir St Theatre. Ballard characterized the event, which dealt with his childhood and first love and was primarily written prior to the break-up, as giving him “an element of closure” and allowing him to “sign off and say this is what I felt about this time.” Ballard identifies himself as a “gay Gen Y public school-educated middle-class son of left-leaning parents.”
Tom Ballard Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $5 Million.
Tom Ballard Stand-up
By 2006, he had been a three-time Class Clowns National Finalist and a Raw Comedy National Finalist. He was a guest entertainer in the 2007 Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Eskimo Jokes event and appeared in Upwey, Warburton, Healesville, and Lilydale as part of the Young Blood Comedy Tour.
He was one of the “stars of the future” (together with Jacques Barrett, Lila Tillman, and Jack Druce) who were advertised as the “four freshest and funniest new talents we could find” by the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and featured in the Festival’s Comedy Zone.
Tom Ballard Career
Together with Alex Dyson, Ballard was a presenter for the community radio station 3WAY FM in Warrnambool. Due to the success of his Raw Comedy performance, Ballard and Dyson were given regular Mid-Dawn shifts (1 a.m. to 6 a.m.) shifts at Triple J, an Australian youth radio station.
Ballard and Dyson were the presenters for the weekday summer lunch slot in December 2008 (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), but they moved to the weekend breakfast slot in 2009. Triple J made the announcement on November 23, 2009, that Ballard and Dyson would take over as hosts of the 2010 Breakfast Show. After seven years with the station, Ballard resigned in November 2013 to concentrate on stand-up comedy.
On Q&A, Celebrity Name Game, The Project, and Show Me the Movie!, Ballard has appeared. and Hughesy, We Need Help. Reality Check, a panel discussion program about reality television, was hosted by Ballard in 2014. In 2015, he hosted episodes of Q&A on June 18 and October 26. In 2016, Ballard was cast in the second season of the SBS television series First Contact. Tonightly with Tom Ballard, a news and culture program on ABC Comedy, was given to Ballard as its host in 2017. In 2021, Ballard made an appearance on the panel show Patriot Brains.
Tom Ballard Political views
The political and cultural comedy show Tonightly with Tom Ballard has been used to advocate for a variety of political issues. Ballard has expressed his animosity toward conservative columnists Miranda Devine, Andrew Bolt, Janet Albrechtsen, and broadcaster Alan Jones in writing and public statements. He wrote “My Letter to Miranda Devine” in 2012, criticizing Devine’s belief that a stable family with a father and mother is ideal for a child’s upbringing.
Ballard has likewise been a vocal pundit of the Australian government’s strategy towards refuge searchers. He told SBS in 2016 that he was angry about the way the country treats refugees and wanted to use his love of comedy to get people interested in the topic. In 2017, Ballard admitted to being a painful atheist. However, he was able to temper his atheism by advocating for refugees and meeting religious leaders who live by the best Christian teachings.
Ballard signed an open letter in 2016 expressing his disapproval of The Australian newspaper’s decision to publish a Bill Leak cartoon about an Aboriginal father who is oblivious to his children. When Australian Conservatives candidate Kevin Bailey was referred to as a “cunt” on Ballard’s Tonightly program in 2018, a senior ABC executive issued an apology.
After an ABC review found that Tonightly with Tom Ballard did not meet a certain quality standard, the show was removed from the lineup at ABC and aired for the last time on September 7, 2018. Ballard gave the Victorian Socialists his support for the 2018 Victorian State Election on September 23.