Cal Wilson

Cal Wilson (5 October 1970 - 11 October 2023) was a New Zealand stand-up comedian, author, radio and television presenter based in Australia. Born in New Zealand, she attended high school in Christchurch and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Canterbury. She co-founded the Court Jesters improv group in 1990 and was part of the New Zealand team that won the World Theatresports title in Los Angeles in 1994.

Wilson moved to stand-up comedy full-time and in 1997 became the inaugural winner, with Ewen Gilmour, of New Zealand's most prestigious comedy award, the Billy T, for her show Dirty Bitch. In 2001 she won the Best Newcomer award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and she appeared to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2004. From 2003 she began living in Melbourne. She wrote the New Zealand sitcom Willy Nilly from 2001 until 2003 and was part of the ensemble cast of the Australian sketch comedy show The Wedge in 2007.

She hosted the program Sleuth 101, co-hosted the seventh season of The Great Australian Bake Off, and voiced Petal and Thorn in the children's TV series Kitty Is Not a Cat from 2018. In 2019 she recorded a Netflix Original Comedy Special titled Comedians of the World representing New Zealand. She married Chris Woods in 2008 and the couple had a son. Wilson died on 11 October 2023 at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, from a rare and aggressive form of cancer, six days after her 53rd birthday.