As career breakthroughs go, this one took a while, but it was worth the wait.
Denise Scott‘s path to her career as a Melbourne Comedy Festival Award-winning comedian began when she started acting nearly thirty years ago, but it has been in the last decade or so that she has hit the big time, scoring high profile TV spots, filling thousand-seat theatres, releasing two books and even returning to her acting heritage with ongoing roles on Seven’s Winners and Losers and Nine’s House Husbands.
In 2009 Denise penned All That Happened at Number 26, a book which became a national best seller and a hit tour, with sell-out seasons at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Sydney Opera House. Scotty’s subsequent solo show, Regrets, was awarded the Melbourne Comedy Festival Directors’ Choice Award, with Scotty winning a Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer. She then made her debut (finally!) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and released her second book The Tour.
Denise hit the stage with her dear friend Judith Lucy in 2013’s The Spiral. Their stand-up-slash-book-tour debuted at the Princess Theatre during MICF and went on to sell well over 30,000 tickets across Australia.
She returned to the stage once again in 2014 with her Melbourne Comedy Festival Award Winning solo show Mother Bare, performing at the Adelaide Fringe, the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Sydney Opera House and Brisbane Powerhouse. And in 2015, Mother Bare returned to Melbourne Comedy Festival for a limited run at the Comedy Theatre and the prestigious Hamer Hall.
Denise and Judith joined forces again for their biggest show yet – Disappointments. This critically acclaimed, runaway success saw them win the 2017 Melbourne Comedy Festival’s People’s Choice Award, perform at London’s Soho Theatre and sell out shows all over Australia. In 2018 Disappointments toured to the Sydney Opera House and around Australia.
Scotty has been and remains a favourite guest on many of Australia’s favourite TV shows, including Spicks and Specks, The Project, Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation, Have You Been Paying Attention?, Please Like Me and Jack Irish and Studio 10. A contestant-turned-co-host on 2019’s Dancing With The Stars reboot for Ten, Scotty also provides the voice for the Nine Network hit, Travel Guides and contributes a column each month to the Australian Women’s Weekly.
2020 – SBS: Who Do You Think You Are? Australia (Guest)
2020 – ABC: Comedy Care Package (Host)
2018-20 – Network TEN: Hughesy, We Have A Problem (Guest)
2018-20 – Network TEN: Studio 10 (Co-Host)
2020 – ABC TV: PlaySchool Story Time (Guest)
2019 – ABC TV: The Yearly with Charlie Pickering (Drump History segment)
2019 – ABC TV: PlaySchool Story Time (guest)
2019 – Network TEN: Dancing With The Stars (Contestant
2018-19 – Network TEN: Studio 10 (Co-Host)
2018-19 – Network TEN: Have You Been Paying Attention? (Guest)
2018 – ABC TV: The Weekly with Charlie Pickering (Guest)
2017 – Channel 9: Travel Guides (Narrator)
2016 – Channel 7: The Big Music Quiz (Guest)
2016 – Channel 9: Postcards (Guest)
2016 – Channel 9: House Husbands (ongoing guest)
2015 – ABC1: Jack Irish (guest, 2 episodes)
2015 – Channel 9: House Husbands (guest)
2015 – ABC1/Pivot: Please Like Me (Cameo)
2005-11, 2014 – ABC TV: Spicks and Specks (Regular guest)
2004-14 – Network TEN: MICF Oxfam Gala (Comedy spot)
You can download a full list of Television credits below
2014: All That Happened at Number 26 second edition, Hardie Grant
2012: The Tour, Hardie Grant
2009: All That Happened at Number 26, Hardie Grant
2019-20 – Triple M: Kennedy Molloy – National Drive (regular guest appearances)
2019 – HIT Network: Hughesy & Kate (Fill in co-host)
2013-15 – Nova 100: Breakfast with Meshel and Tommy (regular guest appearances)
2006 – 2007 – Vega 91.5: Breakfast with Denise Scott, Dave O’Neil and Shaun Micallef (Co-Host)
2005 – 2 Day FM: The Arvo with Judith Lucy and Peter Helliar (Weekly Segment)
2005 – 774 ABC: Evenings with Derek Guille (Host x 3 Weeks)
2004 – 2 Day FM: The Judith Lucy Show (weekly)
2016-18 – Disappointments with Denise Scott and Judith Lucy
Canberra, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Perth, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney State Theatre, Newcastle, Darwin, London Soho Theatre, Brisbane, Sydney Opera House, Hobart Spiegeltent, Return Season at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2018, Spiegeltent Wollongong, Port Macquarie, Caloundra, Mackay, Wagga Wagga, Bendigo, Sutherland, Albany, Bunbury, Mandurah
2015 – Mother Bare – Solo Show
Return season at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2014 – Mother Bare – Solo Show
Adelaide Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney Opera House and Brisbane Powerhouse
2013 – The Spiral with Denise Scott and Judith Lucy
Adelaide Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse, Canberra Theatre, Concourse Theatre Chatswood, Enmore Theatre Sydney, Perth Concert Hall, Hobart, Darwin Festival
2011-12 – Regrets – Solo Show
Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival
2009-10 – Number 26 – Solo show
Melbourne International Comedy Festival (premiere & return seasons), Campbelltown Arts Centre, Devonport Entertainment Centre, Kingston Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane Cabaret Festival, Sydney Opera House
2007 – Up Front – Solo Show
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2005 – Denise Scott Gives Good Council – Solo Show
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2004 – Scotty & Son – with Jordie Lane
Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Albury/Wodonga Comedy Festival
You can download a full list of Live Show credits below
2011: Denise Scott – Number 26 DVD – Released and distributed by Madman
2017: Joint Winner (with Wil Anderson), People’s Choice Award – Disappointments with Denise Scott and Judith Lucy – Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2014: Winner, Barry Award – Mother Bare – Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2011: Winner Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer
2011: Winner of Melbourne International Comedy Festival Director’s Choice Award for Regrets
2009: Winner of Groggy Squirrel Critics’ Award for Number 26
2005: Nominated for the Barry Award for Best Show in the Melbourne Comedy Festival for Denise Scott Gives Good Council
2004: Nominated for the Barry Award for Best Show in the Melbourne Comedy Festival for Scotty and Son
2004: Winner of the Green Room Award (Cabaret) – Most Innovative Use of Form and Most Outstanding Cabaret Show for Comedy Is Still Not Pretty
2003: Age Critics Award – Melbourne Comedy Festival for Comedy Is Still Not Pretty
2000: Nominated for the Barry Award for Best Show in the Melbourne Comedy Festival for Suburban Riot
1999: Nominated for the Stella Award for Best Show in Melbourne Comedy Festival for Comedy Is Not Pretty, Winner of the Radio National award for Best Solo Performer in the Melbourne Fringe Festival for Extraordinary Encounters Of A Mundane Kind
Various clients including: ACT Tourism Awards, Victorian Tourism Awards, ATOM Awards, Australian Teachers Of Media, City of Moonee Valley, International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation, Eastern Ranges GP Association, Essendon Football Club, Fly Buys, Gippsland Business Awards, InnovationXchange Network, Lindt, Local Government Professionals (LG Pro), Melbourne Football Club, Municipal Association of Victoria, Office of Women’s Policy (Victoria), Meat and Livestock Australia, The Parramatta Eels Ladies In League, Victorian Department of Human Services ,Women’s Health Victoria, CPA Australia and Mazda.