Years active 1980s – present Children Sam Gleisner | Role Producer Name Tom Gleisner | |
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Alma mater University of Melbourne Occupation Director, producer, writer, comedian, occasional actor and author Notable work The Late Show
Frontline
The Castle
The Dish
All Aussie Adventures
The Panel
The Hollowmen
Thank God You're Here
Have You Been Paying Attention? Books Molvania, Phaic Tan, San Sombrero Awards AACTA Award for Best Television Comedy Series Movies and TV shows The Late Show, Frontline, Thank God You're Here, The D‑Generation, The Castle Similar People Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Jane Kennedy, Sam Pang, Ed Kavalee | ||
Nominations AACTA Award for Best Film | ||
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Tom Gleisner (born 1962) is an Australian director, producer, writer, comedian, occasional actor and author.
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Early life and education
Gleisner was educated at Xavier College in Melbourne, Australia. He was a law student in University of Melbourne when he began working with Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch in the 1983 Law Revue Legal A.I.D.S. Gleisner wrote and performed in the 1985 Melbourne University Revue Too Cool for Sandals, and was credited as a writer on The D-Generation (1986–87) but not as a regular performer.
He did, however, turn up on numerous occasions as a guest star (he featured more prominently in the second season, to fill in for Rob Sitch who was juggling writing/performing for the show with his studies), and on the album The Satanic Sketches. Gleisner would go on to perform in the D-Gen’s late-eighties Triple M radio show (and its spin-off album The Breakfast Tapes), and then starred in, and wrote for, ABC’s The Late Show (1992–1993). He is remembered in The Late Show as the newsreader of Late Show News, the co-host of Countdown Classics with Jane Kennedy and the interviewer of stuntman Rob Sitch in Shitscared, although he appeared in various other sketches (including a recurring role as brainless bush-traveler "Wallaby Jack").
Television, radio, and film
When The Late Show finished, Gleisner starred as mute cop Poncho in 1994’s ABC show Funky Squad, a comedy which he co-created and served on as one of the writer/producer/directors. A co-founder of Working Dog Productions (along with Santo Cilauro, Jane Kennedy and Rob Sitch), Gleisner was also a writer/producer/director on Frontline which ran on the ABC from 1994 until 1997. He also had a minor role in the programme as photocopier repairman Colin Konica. Gleisner co-wrote the Working Dog films The Castle (1997) and The Dish (2000). He also hosted and co-executive produced the popular Network Ten program The Panel, (1998–2004). Gleisner has also appeared with Rob Sitch as a presenter of the ABC TV fly-fishing documentary A River Somewhere (1997–98). He also wrote and directed the Glenn Robbins comedy, All Aussie Adventures (2001–02), is the judge on the improvised comedy program Thank God You're Here (2006–2009), and co-wrote/co-produced Working Dog's The Hollowmen (2008), Utopia (2014), and Pacific Heat (2016). Gleisner currently hosts the Channel Ten topical quiz show Have You Been Paying Attention? (2013–present).
Books
Gleisner has written four comedic books in the persona of a fictitious cricketer, Warwick Todd, The Warwick Todd Diaries (1997), Warwick Todd: Back in the Baggy Green (1998), Warwick Todd Goes The Tonk (2001) and Warwick Todd – Up in the Block Hole (2009). Gleisner has appeared in his Warwick Todd persona in guest appearances on TV. Gleisner has also written a number of fly fishing books along with Rob Sitch, and along with Sitch and Santo Cilauro, is responsible for the travel guide parodies in the "Jetlag Travel Guide" series. As of 2006, this series stands at the Eastern Europe send-up of Molvanîa: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry, parody of Southeast Asian destinations Phaic Tăn: Sunstroke on a Shoestring and Central American send up San Sombrèro: A Land of Carnivals, Cocktails and Coups.
Gleisner is the chairman of Challenge, an Australian cancer support organisation.