Multi-Award Winning Journalist and TV Host
Lisa Wilkinson has lived much of her life in the public eye. A Member Of The Order Of Australia, as well as a multi-Walkley nominee and Logie-winning journalist, Lisa is one of Australia's most admired and respected media personalities. With her warm, intelligent and elegant presence gracing our television screens now for more than 25 years, Lisa's story, is far more complex than many would think.
Growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney, Lisa was subjected to horrific bullying as a teenager, but survived with a determination and drive which has led to her blazing a trail through the Australian media and cultural landscape ever since. At just 21, Lisa was the youngest editor ever appointed to take charge of a national magazine, Dolly, tripling the circulation during the four years of her leadership.
Then, personally headhunted by media scion Kerry Packer to become editor of Cleo, Lisa took the title to the position of No.1-selling women’s lifestyle magazine, per capita, in the world during her ten years at the helm. Widely known too for her inspiring leadership Lisa became a mentor to many who went on to forge their own highly successful media careers, including Mamamia.com’s Mia Freedman, and longtime Women’s Weekly editor, Deborah Thomas, and was even instrumental in discovering a then-unknown Nicole Kidman and giving the 15-year-old her very first magazine cover.
Lisa then made the successful transition to television, first on Beauty & The Beast, then launching and co-hosting Weekend Sunrise, and eventually becoming the longest serving female co-host at the Nine Network’s Today Show, where she and Karl Stefanovic took the show to Number One in the hotly contested breakfast TV wars in 2016. The following year she caused a media storm across Australia and the world on the issue of the gender pay gap, when she moved to Channel Ten as co-host of The Project.
Lisa recently added “author” to her long list of achievements, with her widely acclaimed memoir “It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This” immediately becoming a best-seller upon it’s release. It was also named one of Apple’s Ten Best Books Of 2021, and was nominated in the Australian Book Industry Awards for Best Autobiography.