Melanie Bracewell is on track to become one of New Zealand’s great comedy success stories – but her start in the industry is vastly at odds with that of many of her contemporaries. The 28-year-old won the Billy T Award in 2018 on the way to becoming a mainstay on TV screens here and across the ditch, but her career really took off as a teenager on the internet. In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan that aired on Sunday night, Auckland-raised Bracewell recounted her unlikely rise to stardom on the social media site Tumblr.

“I would just write jokes online, which sometimes circulate now as memes, and it will be what I wrote as a 15 or 16-year-old – which is quite surreal,” she said. “When I was 19, there was a competition for [Three comedy show] 7 Days and they were trying to find a comedy apprentice, and I was egged on by my followers. They were like, ‘Oh, this seems like you.

You could just say some jokes into a camera – you’ve already written them for Tumblr anyway’. “I did that, and it was a public vote, which does help when you have a big following on a Tumblr blog. They voted for me and I got on for about five minutes.

” It was those five minutes that launched a career that has since had Bracewell writing for TV programmes The Project and Wellington Paranormal , and starring in comedy shows like Have You Been Paying Attention? , Patriot Brains and Australia’s The Cheap Seats . She’s also become an accomplished stand-up c.