Readers
A snapshot of the high-profile readers participating in 1.5 Degrees Live.
Sandy was elected as a City of Adelaide Area Councillor in the 2015 by-election and served as Deputy Lord Mayor from June 2017 to November 2018. She has had a career in both the public and private enterprise, not-for-profits, and local and state government.
Elected Lord Mayor in November 2018, Sandy is keen to keep costs low for residents and businesses by reducing red tape, strengthening Adelaide’s global reputation for culture, climate change action, and entrepreneurialism, preserving Adelaide’s heritage, and enhancing the city’s precincts and main streets for the benefit of local small business owners and the community.
Khadija Gbla is a high profile, passionate and inspiring African Australian woman. She is an award-winning human rights activist, entrepreneur, inspirational speaker, facilitator, philanthropist and mentor.
She has displayed great courage and determination in achieving her aspirations of giving women, youth and minority groups a voice at a local, state and international level. Khadija utilises her powerful and inspired voice to advocate equality and inclusion.Khadija Gbla was born in Sierra Leone, spent her youth in Gambia, and as a teenager put down roots in Australia. Khadija was just 3-years-old when the war broke out in her country, Sierra Leone and 10 years later they attained refugee status and resettled in Adelaide. Khadija provides advocacy, training, speaking on domestic and family violence, sexual health, racism, human rights, mental health, migrants and refugees and cultural diversity through her cultural consultancy, Khadija Gbla Cultural Consultancy.
Rob Brookman is a leading Australian theatre producer, festival director, cultural programmer and arts administrator. He has held leadership positions in a number of the Australasia's foremost festivals and performing arts organisations including the Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Festival Centre, National Festival of Australian Theatre, New Zealand International Festival of Arts, Arts Projects Australia, Sydney Theatre Company and State Theatre Company South Australia. In 1992 he co-founded Australia’s leading world music festival WOMADelaide and remained as Artistic Director and/or Artistic Advisor for 15 years. Rob has also run his own cultural consultancy Sweet Reason Pty Ltd offering consulting services to major productions and festivals, and undertaking feasibility studies and project development work for a wide range of clients including festivals, commercial developers and local government agencies.
Rob has held many arts-related board positions including Deputy Chair of Playing Australia, Chair of the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, Chair of the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals, Board Member of the Melbourne Festival and is currently a Trustee of the WOMADelaide Foundation.
Matthew Wright-Simon is the founder of Ecocreative, a pioneering business in the sustainability, wellbeing and social impact sectors dedicated to ‘engagement for changemakers’.
Matthew is a serious values-driven creative practitioner with a ready sense of humour. This is evident in the energy and sense of enthusiasm in his work as an emcee and presenter, curator, mentor and advocate for the positive impact enabled through human connection, including his work with Newday Leadership and volunteering for TEDxAdelaide.
Tammy Franks MLC has been a Greens member of South Australia’s Legislative Council since her election in 2010.
Tammy is proud to fight for a fairer future and to be part of a party that stands on principle in the parliament and are not afraid to bring on the difficult, but necessary, debates on issues the others would often rather avoid.
Tom Ballard is an award-winning stand up comedian/actor/writer/broadcaster/person who always tries his best. He’s one of Australia’s hottest comic talents, he’s performed and won acclaim all around the world.
In 2009, Tom became the youngest ever recipient of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Best Newcomer Award for his debut hour, Tom Ballard Is What He Is. He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe for his show Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred, while his 2016 show The World Keeps Happening was nominated for Best Show in both Melbourne and Edinburgh, as well as taking out the 2016 Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer.
In 2017 Tom’s show Problematic won the Best Australian Show Award at the Sydney Comedy Festival and was hailed as one of the top three best-reviewed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe that year.
There are very few new voices on the Australian comedy scene as distinctive and exciting as Lewis Garnham.
Since representing his home state of South Australia at the 2016 RAW Comedy National Final, Lewis has been captivating audiences with a style that is a potent combination of laconic, intelligent and introspective.
In 2017 Lewis was nominated for Best Emerging Artist at the Adelaide Fringe for his show “The World I Live In”. He followed it up in 2018 with his breakout show “The Smartest Idiot You’ll Ever Meet”, which was nominated for Best Comedy at Perth Fringe World and the prestigious Best Newcomer Award at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
Lewis returned to Australian festivals in 2019 with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, a hilarious, ambitious and self-assured hour that regularly played to sold out houses. He also was featured on the annual Triple J Breakfast “Good Az Friday” show at the Melbourne Town Hall, where he smashed a comedy spot that has racked up over 100,000 views on Triple J’s Facebook page.
Full list of speakers
Proudly supported by
Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042
South Australia | Northern Territory
Global | Online
Follow Flinders
