Jordan Raskopoulos

Jordan Nicola Bridget Raskopoulos[1] (born 25 January 1982) is an Australian comedian, actress and singer best known for her role as a writer and performer on the Network Ten sketch comedy show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour,[2] and as lead singer for comedy rock group The Axis of Awesome (2006-2018). Her father is former footballer Peter Raskopoulos, and her brother is Steen Raskopoulos, a fellow comedian.

Jordan Raskopoulos
Born
Jordan Raskopoulos

(1982-01-25) 25 January 1982
Sydney, Australia
OccupationComedian, actress, singer, television personality
Known forThe Axis of Awesome
The Ronnie Johns Half Hour
Websitejordanrasko.com

Career

In 2003, Raskopoulos became involved with Impro Australia's Theatresports events including The Belvoir St Theatre Theatresports and the Cranston Cup competitions, winning State and National Titles.[3] In 2005, she became part of the university sketch comedy supergroup The 3rd Degree who performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This group formed the base of the Network Ten's Logie award-winning cult ensemble sketch comedy television show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, in which Raskopoulos starred and for which she wrote.[2]

After the success of The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, Raskopoulos went on to appear in Stupid, Stupid Man, Stand Up Australia, Hole in the Wall, Good News Week and Thank God You're Here, and has provided voices for the ABC2 machinima series The Team. She was a team captain for a season of the SBS sports show The Squiz.[4] In 2007, her debut solo stage show was called The Adventures of the Man with the Dominant Claw.[5] With her band The Axis of Awesome, Raskopoulos has appeared on Q&A, Good News Week and The Footy Show.

From 2006 until 2018, Raskopoulos fronted the award-winning musical comedy trio The Axis of Awesome, whose parody song "4 Chords" has received almost 64 million hits on YouTube and is one of the highest-rated comedy videos on the site. The group came to attention after the release of their songs parodying the 2007 Australian federal election and received a Moosehead award at the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival for their show The Axis of Awesome Comeback Spectacular.[6] Since 2009, the Axis of Awesome have produced four albums and toured extensively in the USA, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia, with sold-out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They broke up in 2018, after a temporary hiatus.

Logies controversy

Raskopoulos was cast in the supporting role of Trax in the 2012 movie Underground: The Julian Assange Story[7] along with Rachel Griffiths, Anthony LaPaglia and Alex Williams. In January 2013, Raskopoulos requested users of the internet forum Something Awful to vote for her in the most popular actor category of the 2013 Logie Awards, promising in return to allow site users to write her acceptance speech. This caused some controversy, with news outlets reporting that Raskopoulos, who despite a high-profile international comedy career was relatively unknown in Australian acting circles, planned to 'hack' the Logies.[8][9] Raskopoulos herself described her campaign as no different to any ordinary "fan" campaign, stating: "I'm conspiring to rig the Logies in the same way Guy Sebastian's fan forums are, or [in the same way as] fans of The Voice are calling for votes for Joel Madden on Twitter."[10] In support of her campaign to win votes, Raskopoulos appeared in a segment on Australian current affairs program Today Tonight dressed in a fur collar and acting in character, and stated that she wished to win a Logie for use as a doorstop.[11]

Personal life

Raskopoulos is a transgender woman who came out publicly in 2016. She kept her given name but added the middle names Nicola and Bridget.[1][12] In 2017, she spoke about her anxiety disorder at a TEDx talk.[13] Raskopoulos plays roller derby and has played Warhammer 40,000 since she was 12 years old.[14]

References
  1. "What's Happened To Jordan's Beard?".
  2. Jordan Raskopoulos' Dominant Claw, Australian Comedy Review, 23 April 2007.
  3. Impro Australia, ImproAustralia.com.au.
  4. The Squiz on SBS, SBS.
  5. Don't call me 'Clawed' Archived 29 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The Blurb.
  6. Infinity Rock Explosion! Archived 14 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Neos Kosmos, 19 January 2010.
  7. http://ten.com.au/underground-jordan-raskopoulos.htm Jordan Raskopoulos as Trax. Underground: The Julian Assange Story
  8. Duck, Siobhan; Gillett, Christopher (15 January 2013). "Actor from Underground: The Julian Assange Story in web ridicule campaign over Logie votes". Herald Sun.
  9. "Vote for me to win a Logie award. You can write my acceptance speech".
  10. Idato, Michael (15 January 2013). "'Bit of a joke' as actor turns to web for Logie tilt". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  11. "Comedian attempts to hijack Logies – Today Tonight Video". Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  12. Croffey, Amy (15 February 2016). "The Axis of Awesome's Jordan Raskopoulos transitions to a woman". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  13. "Living with High Functioning Anxiety – Jordan Raskopoulos".
  14. Raskopoulos, Jordan (2 February 2018). "How I fell in love with roller derby | Jordan Raskopoulos". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
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