Tom Gleeson

Thomas Francis Gleeson (born June 2, 1974) is an Australian stand-up comedian, writer, television and radio presenter. He currently hosts Hard Quiz and Taskmaster Australia, and previously co-hosted The Weekly with Charlie Pickering alongside Judith Lucy. In 2019, Gleeson won the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Television.

Gleeson was born in Gunnedah, New South Wales, and lived at nearby Tambar Springs before boarding at St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, in Sydney. He graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and physics, and during his degree played drums and occasionally sang vocals in the Australian band The Fantastic Leslie. His first stage appearance was as the character "Malcolm," and he went on to perform at major events including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and Montreal Comedy Festival. In December 2007, he entertained Australian troops on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, an experience he wrote about in his 2008 book Playing Poker with the SAS.

Three of Gleeson's stand-up shows have been nominated for the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer: Tom On! (2007), Up Himself (2011) and Quality (2014). His show Joy (2019) won Best Comedy at Perth Fringe World, and Lighten Up (2020) won Best Comedy at the Adelaide Fringe. On television, he appeared in Network Ten's sketch program skitHOUSE, hosted segments including "Hard Chat" on The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, and from 2016 began presenting Hard Quiz, a spin-off of that segment. He is the main host of the Australian version of Taskmaster, working alongside comedian Tom Cashman.