Nina Oyama is an Australian comedian, writer, actor, and director. She is best known for her role as Courtney in the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

comedy series '' Utopia''.

Early life

Oyama was born to an Australian mother from Sydney's Northern Beaches and a Japanese father. Her parents met at a hostel in Nagoya. Oyama attended

North Sydney Girls High School , motto_translation = Towards Higher Things , established = , type = Government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school , gender = Girls , oversight = New South Wales Department of Education , principal = Megan Co ...

, and went on to study communications and theatre media at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, New South Wales.

Career

Oyama began performing stand-up comedy at 17 years old. In 2012, she was a state finalist in the Class Clowns competition. That year she also performed at The Sydney Fringe as part of "Barely Legal - Australia's Best Young Comedians" alongside

Neel Kolhatkar Neel Kolhatkar (born 30 March 1994) is an Australian comedian, YouTuber and actor. As of April 2022, Kolhatkar has received 86.5 million views on his YouTube channel. Early life Neel Kolhatkar was born on 30 March 1994 in Sydney, Australia, and ...

and

Aaron Chen Aaron Chen (born 1995) is a Chinese-Australian comedian from Sydney. Early life Aaron Chen was born in 1995. He went to North Sydney Boys High, where he started doing stand-up. Career In 2012, aged 15, Chen won Melbourne International Comed ...

, and performed on Dan Ilic's

FBi Radio FBi (call sign: 2FBI) station is an independent, not-for-profit community radio in Sydney, Australia. FBi places a heavy emphasis on local emerging music: it has a policy that at least 50 per cent of its music content is to be Australian, of wh ...

show. Oyama became a writer for the children's sketch comedy show '' You're Skitting Me'', and made her television debut performing stand-up comedy on SBS 2 in 2014. In 2017, Oyama was cast as executive assistant/ receptionist Courtney Kano in the third and fourth season of '' Utopia (Australian TV series)''. In the same year, she joined the cast of

ABC Comedy ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of general entertainment progra ...

's topical entertainment show ''

Tonightly with Tom Ballard ''Tonightly with Tom Ballard'' was an Australian comedy entertainment show presented by comedian Tom Ballard and regular contributors Bridie Connell, Greg Larsen, Greta Lee Jackson and Nina Oyama. It aired on ABC Comedy from 4 December 2017 until ...

'' as a writer; she also starred in the second and final series of the show in 2018. Oyama directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in ''The Angus Project'', a web series and television pilot that aired on ABC iview in 2018. Based on real events in Bathurst, the series co-stars Angus Thompson as a

sports journalist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

with cerebral palsy, for whom Oyama becomes a friend and caregiver. The show received praise for its earnest depictions of disability and regional Australia; the pilot was nominated for an Australian Directors' Guild award. Oyama also co-directed ''Diving In'', which starred an amputee swimmer and was featured in the 2020 Sydney Film Festival. Oyama regularly performs stand-up comedy, and has been nominated for Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. She stars on the Network 10 sketch comedy series ''

Kinne Tonight ''Kinne Tonight'' is an Australian sketch comedy television series created, written and directed by Troy Kinne and Max Price first airing as a pilot, on 17 August 2018 on Network 10. The first season premiered on 27 May 2019. In October 2019, ...

'', and served as a scriptwriter for Michael Cusack's

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

series '' YOLO: Crystal Fantasy''. Oyama also received media attention in 2020 for making "#CatPoop" a trending topic on Twitter in Australia.

References

External links

* Australian people of Japanese descent Australian television writers Australian women television writers Australian women comedians Living people 1993 births {{Australia-comedian-stub