Anna Skellern is an actress best known as the first female member of The Chaser

The Chaser

The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedian group, known for their television programmes on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation channel. The group take their name from their production of satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste...

's television programme CNNNN.

Early years

Skellern attended the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

, where she was a prominent student activist. In the first season of The Chaser's CNNNN, an Australian television show satirising American news channels CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 and Fox News, she played her namesake Anna Skellern, a no-nonsense war correspondent noted for the frequent loss of her cameramen and dubbed 'the perfumed abattoir'. In 2004, CNNNN shared the Logie Award

Logie Award

The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...

 for 'Most Outstanding Comedy' with Kath & Kim

Kath & Kim

Kath & Kim is a Logie Award-winning character-driven Australian television situation comedy series. The series was created by, and is written by Jane Turner and Gina Riley who play the title characters: a suburban mother and daughter with a dysfunctional relationship...

.

Personal life

In 2007, Skellern was at the centre of a public spat between two of her former boyfriends, Tim Freedman

Tim Freedman

Timothy "Tim" James Freedman is the mainstay lead singer and keyboardist of the Australian band The Whitlams formed in 1993...

, singer and songwriter of the indie rock band The Whitlams

The Whitlams

The discography of The Whitlams consists of six studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, and eighteen singles.-Studio albums:-Live albums:-Compilation albums:-Singles:-Videos:-Music videos:-Awards:...

, and Chaser host Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor (comedian)

Christopher Thornton "Chris" Taylor is an Australian comedian, writer and former radio host from Sydney. As a member of The Chaser, he is best known for co-writing and appearing on satirical ABC Television shows CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything...

. On 7 October 2007, Freedman posted a message on the band's official website, citing a parody of him which was written by Taylor, and had aired on the 3 October 2007 episode of The Chaser's War on Everything

The Chaser's War on Everything

The Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian television satirical comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television station ABC1. It has won an AFI Award. The cast perform sketches mocking social and political issues, and often feature comedic publicity stunts...

. The song was performed by fellow Chaser Andrew Hansen

Andrew Hansen

Andrew John Hansen is an Australian comedian and musician, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...

, and the lyrics implied that Freedman was obsessed with the Sydney suburb of Newtown

Newtown, New South Wales

Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west is located approximately four kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, straddling the local government areas of the City of Sydney and Marrickville Council in the state of New South Wales, Australia....

, and that he continually referred to the area of Newtown in his own songs. In his message, Freedman alluded that the lyrics were indeed written by Taylor, and that the parody had been motivated by jealousy over Skellern. Taylor denied this, and said that the song had nothing to do with Skellern. "He [Freedman] was speculating that the song was written out of some sort of jealous rage or payback which isn't the case at all, he said. "My relationship with Anna didn't end badly... we're still good friends and see each other quite a bit."

Recent Work

In July 2007 Skellern graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...

 in London, whose alumni include Orlando Bloom

Orlando Bloom

Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom is an English actor. He had his break-through roles in 2001 as the elf-prince Legolas in The Lord of the Rings and starring in 2003 as blacksmith Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, and subsequently established himself as a lead in Hollywood...

, Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig

Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...

, Joseph Fiennes

Joseph Fiennes

Joseph Fiennes is an English film and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, Merlin in Camelot, and his portrayal of Mark Benford in the...

, Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor

Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...

, Marina Sirtis

Marina Sirtis

Marina Sirtis is a British-American actress of Greek descent. She played the role of the human/Betazoid Commander Deanna Troi, ship's counselor, on the television and film series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Life:...

 and Hayley Atwell. In that month she made her professional stage debut in the successful West End production The Vegemite Tales

The Vegemite Tales

The Vegemite Tales is a comedy theatrical production written by Australian playwright Melanie Tait. The play revolves around the lives of a group of young antipodeans sharing a flat in London. It has been described as an Australian stage version of Friends...

, playing the role of Maddie.

Skellern was recently cast as the new Sapphire in the radio show Sapphire and Steel from Big Finish

Big Finish Productions

Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...

 – beginning with "Second Sight

Second Sight (Sapphire and Steel)

Second Sight is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the popular British science fiction television series Sapphire & Steel.-Cast:*Steel — Blair McDonough*Sapphire — Anna Skellern*Ruby — Lisa Bowerman*Mary — Patience Tomlinson...

".

Skellern filmed for the sequel to Neil Marshall

Neil Marshall

Neil Marshall is an English film director, editor and screenwriter. Marshall began his career in editing and in 2002 directed his first feature film Dog Soldiers, which became a cult film. He followed up with the critically acclaimed horror film The Descent in 2005...

's critically acclaimed horror film The Descent

The Descent

The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids....

, The Descent Part 2, which was released in late 2009. The script sees a survivor from The Descent forced back into the system of caves she battled her way out of in the first film, in a bid to locate the rest of her group. Skellern played one of the members of the new search team that accompanies the survivor back into the caves.

In 2009, Skellern filmed Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

's Poirot: The Clocks with David Suchet

David Suchet

David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...

, Jamie Winstone

Jamie Winstone

Jaime Margaret Winstone is an English actress, known for playing Becky in the film Kidulthood, and playing Kelly in the E4 horror series Dead Set.-Early life:...

 and Tom Burke

Tom Burke (actor)

Tom Liam Benedict Burke is an English actor.-Early life:Born on 30 June 1981; Kent, England), he is the son of actor David Burke and actress Anna Calder-Marshall...

.  She also filmed the new role of the babysitter, Kelly, for BBC1's award-winning, partly improvised comedy Outnumbered

Outnumbered

Outnumbered is a British sitcom. Airing on BBC One since 2007, it stars Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as a father and mother outnumbered by their three children...

, directed by Andy Hamilton

Andy Hamilton

Andrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter and radio dramatist.-Early life:...

 and Guy Jenkin

Guy Jenkin

Guy Jenkin is a comedy writer who is best known for working on sitcoms and comedies such as Drop the Dead Donkey, Jeffrey Archer: The Truth and Outnumbered...

 and starring Claire Skinner

Claire Skinner

Claire L. Skinner is an English actress, who is well known in the United Kingdom for her television career.-Biography:Born and brought up in Hemel Hempstead, Skinner, the youngest daughter of a shopkeeper and an Irish-born secretary, was immensely shy as a child...

 and Hugh Dennis

Hugh Dennis

Peter Hugh Dennis is an English actor, comedian, writer, impressionist and voice-over artist, best known for his work with comedy partner Steve Punt. He is also known for his position as a permanent panelist on the TV comedy show Mock The Week...

.
 
Skellern spent time in Africa filming the lead role in the thriller, Siren, with Eoin Macken

Eoin Macken

Eoin Christopher Macken is an Irish actor and film maker.Eoin has modelled for Abercrombie and Fitch, Ralph Lauren, and GQ....

 and Tereza Srbova.  She also plays Jo in the new feature, A Passionate Woman, directed by Kay Mellor

Kay Mellor

Kay Mellor, OBE is an English actress, scriptwriter, and director best known for her work on several successful television drama series.-Early life:...

 and Antonia Bird

Antonia Bird

Antonia Bird is an English television drama and feature film director.-Life and career:Bird was born in London. She began her career at the Royal Court Theatre before moving to television in the mid 1980s, directing episodes of EastEnders , Casualty , and drama serials like Thin Air and The Men's...

, with Billie Piper

Billie Piper

Billie Paul Piper is an English singer and actress.She began her career in the late 1990s as a pop singer and then switched to acting. She started in acting and dancing and was talent spotted at the Sylvia Young stage school by Smash Hits magazine who wanted a "face" for their magazine...

 and Sue Johnston.

External links