Julia has been a regular face on Australian television since her debut on New Faces in 1985. By 1995 she was a household name, hosting or starring in popular shows including Full Frontal, In Melbourne Tonight and Beauty and the Beast.
Between 2000 and 2007, ‘Lady J-Mo’ (as she is affectionately called) lived in the UK. During that time Julia hosted TV shows for the BBC, worked with everyone from Stephen Fry to Dame Edna, appeared in nearly every major international comedy festival from Montreal to South Africa, won the Herald Angel award at the Edinburgh Festival 2002 and was named Time Out London’s ‘Comedy Performer of the Year’ in 2004. Whilst in the UK Julia also starred in the successful Edinburgh production of ‘Hunting Diana’ and wrote and performed three different one woman shows on London’s prestigious West End.
In December 2006 Julia gave birth to her first daughter Ruby, and returning to Australia in 2007 with her new family, co-hosted the Astra-Award winning Singing Office. In early 2008 Julia and opera star David Hobson not only won Channel 7’s popular celebrity singing show It Takes Two, but, with their interpretations of songs like We Don’t Need Another Hero, also provided the nation with some of the most memorable TV moments of the year.
During It Takes Two, Julia discovered she was pregnant again and in November 2008 she delivered her second daughter, Sophie. Julia used the final months of her second pregnancy to pen the memoirs of her time abroad, entitled Don’t You Know Who I Used To Be?, which were released in April 2009.
Julia’s 2008 and 2009 stand-up tours were both nominated for the Helpmann Award (Australia’s version of the Tony or Olivier theatre awards) and she won ‘Best Australian Act’ at the Time Out Sydney 2009 Comedy Awards. Julia also appeared at the Just For Laughs Festival in 2009, including being specially selected to perform at Whoopi Goldberg’s Gala.
During most of 2010 and 2011 Julia was based in Los Angeles, where she attended acting school and captured the hearts and imaginations of many of LA’s top industry execs. During that time she also hosted several high profile events in Australia including the prestigious 2011 Midwinter Ball in Australia’s Parliament House.
In late 2011 Julia returned home to become Australia’s very first ‘Celebrity Apprentice’, raising nearly $200,000 for breast cancer research along the way. In May 2012 Julia started recording her first major acting role as Gemma in Nine Network and Playmaker Media’s House Husbands. The show aired in late 2012 and quickly established itself as a firm audience favourite, with Julia being nominated for Most Popular Actress and the show itself winning Most Popular Drama at the 2013 Logie Awards. Julia also received Most Popular Actress nominations in the 2014 and 2015 Logies.
Julia’s No Judgement stand-up tour won the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer in July 2013. Between August and November 2013 Julia hosted Nine Network’s Australia’s Got Talent alongside judges Dawn French, Geri Halliwell, Timomatic and Kyle Sandilands.
At the beginning of 2015 Julia co-hosted the very first Australian season of Network Ten’s hit reality show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! Live five nights a week from Kruger National Park in South Africa. Season 4 of House Husbands was broadcast later in the year, followed by a national stand-up tour, which was again nominated for the Helpmann award. I’m A Celebrity returned in 2016 and is back early 2017 along with Season 5 of House Husbands, both followed by a national stand up tour
