Michèle A'Court

Michele Edith A'Court (born 1961) is a New Zealand comedian, writer and feminist. She has toured New Zealand and international venues with her standup comedy shows and in 2010 was awarded the Female Comedian of the Decade at the NZ Comedy Guild Awards. A'Court has appeared in many TV shows since the late 1980s including What Now, 7Days and The Project. She is a regular columnist with The Spinoff and the author of two books. She was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the entertainment and comedy industries, in the 2023 New Year Honours.

A'Court trained in journalism and has a degree in English literature and drama from Victoria University of Wellington. In the mid-1980s she worked as a TVNZ publicist, then got a job as a host on children's television show What Now starting in 1987. She saw comedy as a vehicle for social activism as a feminist as well as making people feel 'better about life'. When she started doing stand-up comedy in the 1990s there were very few women. A'Court supported the comedy industry of New Zealand by establishing the New Zealand Comedy Guild and was its chairperson from 1999 to 2006.

Since 2009 A'Court regularly appears on the comedy TV show 7Days and since 2018 has been a regular host on the current affairs programme The Project, both on the New Zealand Three TV channel. She has written two books: her first book, Stuff I Forgot To Tell My Daughter (2015), was based on her stand-up comedy show of the same name, and her second was How We Met (2018). A'Court lives in Auckland and is married to comedian Jeremy Elwood.