Simon Paul Kennedy

Simon Paul Kennedy
Simon Kennedy (Comedian).jpg Simon Kennedy (Comedian).jpg Simon Kennedy
Born	(1974-11-19) 19 November 1974 Auburn Hospital
💼 Occupation	Comedian author
📆 Years active	25

Simon Paul Kennedy (born 19 November 1974) is an Australian comedian and writer.

Early life

Simon Paul Kennedy was born in Auburn Hospital, New South Wales, Australia on 19 November 1974 to Barry and Yvonne Kennedy ( née O'Prey) and grew up in the Western Sydney suburb of Toongabbie.

Simon's father, Barry Kennedy, was a life insurance broker and former professional boxer. He died of cardiac arrest in 1985. Simon's mother Yvonne raised both Simon and his brother Leigh whilst also working full time for the Australian Red Cross as a volunteer coordinator. Kennedy attended primary school at St. Anthony's Catholic Primary School before attending Parramatta Marist High School.

Media career

Kennedy studied Commercial Radio Broadcasting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 1996 alongside AFL journalist Matthew Granland and ABC political journalist David Speers, and was best man at Speers' wedding in 1998. Simon returned to AFTRS as a guest lecturer.

After two years away from the radio industry, Kennedy joined the promotions team of new Sydney commercial radio station Nova 96.9fm and became an on-air announcer hosting "The Show With No Name" and "Kennedy & Philp" with fellow comedian Steve Philp.

Kennedy was appointed to the role of the Nova network's Chief Creative of Brand Content in 2002, tasked with creating comedy based radio imaging which was credited with giving Nova its unique sound and identity at the time. Kennedy also created and brought to life the character "Bevan the work experience voice-over kid" who was the only on-air personality at Nova's Nova 106.9fm for seven months before its official launch on 4 April 2005. Kennedy went on to co-host Nova 106.9fm's night show in 2006 until he and his co-host Justine McKell were replaced when the show was in the number 1 ratings position. Kennedy left Nova in early 2007 to focus on stand-up comedy and his career as a voice-over artist and voice actor.

Kennedy has voiced numerous media products, such as the promo voice for Movie Extra, Foxtel Movies Comedy, and Foxtel Movies Family, TV Hits, ABC2, ABC Me, ABC Comedy, ABC TV Plus, SPIKE (Australia & NZ), Comedy Central (Australia & NZ), Max, and Channel V.

Kennedy has also appeared in animation and children's programming such as Awesome Magical Tales (also known as Teenage Fairytale Dropouts) in which he played lead character Jeremiah, the film adaptation of the children's book Alice Miranda Friends Forever, and Playhouse Disney's Ooh, Aah, & You where he provided the voice of Ooh the monkey for the Australia /New Zealand market.

Comedy career

In 1999, Kennedy started his standup comedy career at open mic nights at Sydney's Off Broadway Hotel and The Sydney Comedy Store. In September 1999, Simon started working at Fox Studios Australia Backlot theme park as an actor on James Cameron's Titanic – The Experience, a ride/show based on the Oscar winning film,where he met his future wife, actor Tahnee Stroet.

Kennedy has worked internationally with, among others, Doug Stanhope, Wil Anderson, Ronny Chieng, Arj Barker, Jimeoin, Merrick and Rosso, and Dom Irrera. Kennedy's only Melbourne Comedy Festival appearance was in 2001 with the show Fishing For Cigars

In 2002, Kennedy wrote and performed the one-man-show The Angina Monologues at Sydney's Old Fitzroy Hotel Theatre, later taking it to the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Kennedy has starred in various Sydney Comedy Festival shows including Not From Here (2008) with Jackie Loeb, Denis Crocker – The Logies, The Ladies, The Legend (2013), Totes 40 (2015), Simontology (2016), and Hairless Whisper (2019)

Writer

On 11 September 2001, Kennedy's mother Yvonne Kennedy boarded American Airlines Flight 77 to begin her journey home after an extended retirement vacation. AA77 was crashed into the Pentagon by Al Qaeda terrorists killing all on board. A collection of Yvonne Kennedy's personal belongings and items recovered from the AA77 crash were donated to the National Museum of Australia where they are on display.

Kennedy documents his experience in his 2014 memoir 9/11 And The Art Of Happiness. In subsequent interviews Kennedy credits his mother's death to a change in his approach to his comedy: "I think it really cemented my moral compass... it made me think what do I believe in? I developed a real hatred of racism out of the experience".

After meeting Kennedy in Washington DC in 2011, renowned American Muslim Scholar, Imam Zaid Shakir spoke about Simon in his speech at the United for Change conference in Washington DC, 10 September 2011.

"When some of the ills of our world called Simon Kennedy to jump on the Muslim-bashing bandwagon of hatred, he heroically rose above those ills and chose another path. He chose to work for peace, understanding and reconciliation. He was able to successfully combat the ills of the world".

— Imam Zaid Shakir, "On Heroism"

In 9/11 And The Art Of Happiness, Kennedy voiced his disapproval of the George W Bush government's invasion of Iraq and the Australian government's willingness to participate.

"...the Bush regime had used the death of my mother and thousands of others as a key reason for invading Iraq. Then they used the search for WMDs to justify staying there. Why were they not using these resources to find Osama bin Laden and the network of terrorists responsible for 9/11 and the Bali bombings? My memory wasn’t as short as the Bush administration thought it was and each mention of the War on Iraq was an insult to my mother’s memory."

— Simon Kennedy, 9/11 And The Art Of Happiness

Kennedy has spoken openly about renouncing racism towards the Islamic community and credits his mother with this philosophy.

"Many middle-class white Australians were already suspicious of cultures they didn’t understand, especially the Islamic community. Now it was being suggested that some people living amongst us might be a terror threat and should be watched. It was obvious to me where this was heading. Australia was becoming an uncomfortable place to live and I felt as if I was the only one who could see a problem with it. This was not the legacy my mother would have wanted, but what could I do?"

— Simon Kennedy, 9/11 And The Art Of Happiness

Kennedy is known to give keynote speeches on the topic of resilience, happiness, the art of forgiveness, and letting go of bitterness and hatred. In 2019, Kennedy attended pre-trial hearings at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba where he came face-to-face with 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

""I felt pity for the guy, and I thought, well, he's hurt a lot of people and he's hurt me really badly. But he has no power over the kind of life that I live now, and no power of the kind of life I choose to live."

— Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Lisa Needham, Simon Kennedy's mother was killed in the September 11 attacks. He still refuses to hate the perpetrators

In 2021, Kennedy released an audio version of book which is read by himself and David Speers.

Recognition

• 1998 RAWARDS – Best Station Produced Comedy Segment (Country)
• 2004 ACRA Awards – Best Achievement in Production (Metropolitan)
• 2011 Time Out Magazine (Sydney) – Comedian of the Year Finalist

Personal life

Simon married Tahnee Stroet in 2006 in Sydney. They have two children. Fletcher Kennedy, an AACTA nominated actor, and Adelaide Kennedy, an actor, writer, and director.

Bibliography

KENNEDY, SIMON. 9/11 And the Art of Happiness: An Australian Story. Finch Publishing, 2016.

External links

• https://simonkennedy.com
• https://www.youtube.com/c/simonkennedy
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2465913/
• https://www.emvoices.com.au/artists/simon-kennedy/

References

This article "Simon Kennedy" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Simon Kennedy. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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