Tom Ballard

Thomas Colin Ballard (born 26 November 1989) is an Australian comedian, broadcaster, actor, and writer. Starting out in radio, he became known as a Triple J host, along with his friend Alex Dyson, over seven years with the station. He is known for his stand-up comedy, as a host of podcasts, and as a television presenter, such as the 2017 ABC Television comedy show Tonightly with Tom Ballard. He is author of the 2022 book I, Millennial: One Snowflake's Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires and Everything Else.

Ballard was born in 1989 in Warrnambool, Victoria, and grew up there. He attended Brauer Secondary College, graduating in 2007 as School Captain and Dux. Ballard was a three-time Class Clowns national finalist in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and a Raw Comedy national finalist by 2006. He performed his first stand-up show in 2009, entitled Tom Ballard Is What He Is, "about growing up and coming out in regional Victoria. In 2015, he toured his show Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred, which he based on a 2013 homophobic incident directed at him in a taxi in Newcastle, around various comedy festivals, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Among other awards, Ballard won the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer in 2016, for The World Keeps Happening, and in 2017 his show Problematic was one of three best-reviewed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe.

After being noticed in the Raw Comedy event, Ballard and Dyson were recruited by Triple J, and in November 2013 Ballard resigned from Triple J after seven years with the station, to focus on his stand-up comedy. In 2017, he was appointed host of the news and culture TV program Tonightly with Tom Ballard on ABC Comedy, which aired for the last time on 7 September 2018. He was later cast in Deadloch (released June 2023 on Amazon Prime Video) as Sven Alderman. Ballard wrote and broadcast the podcast Like I'm A Six-Year-Old for eight years, from around 2015 until May 2023, and as of 2024 co-hosts the left-leaning political podcast Serious Danger with Emerald Moon.