Comedy may not have been Lawrence Mooney’s first career path, but it’s the one he was born to do. Having worked variously as a salesman, cleaner and furniture polisher, Mooney’s rise as a stand-up comedian was slow but assured. Today, he is one of the presenters of Moonman in the Morning, Triple M Radio’s Sydney breakfast show. This role won him his most recent award, an ACRA for Best Entertainment Presenter. On TV, he is the writer and presenter of Fox’s Up the Guts, an irreverent take on the week’s football action.

It was on his stand-up shows that Mooney built his reputation. His show, An Indecisive Bag of Donuts, won Best of the Festival awards at the 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, one of the largest comedy festivals in the world. He returned the following year with Lawrence of Suburbia. This paved the way for appearances on ABC, Australia’s national broadcaster, on the sketch show Problems and panel show Dirty Laundry Live. He has also guested on numerous celebrity versions of game shows, including The Celebrity Chase and The Einstein Factor. In 2016, he had the honour of being part of the team covering the Paralympics for Network Seven.

Mooney’s radio career began with a drive time show on Melbourne Talk Radio. When the station closed, he was snapped up by Triple M, becoming known for his impressions of then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, before being made a full-time presenter of their breakfast show in 2018. His stand-up shows also continue to be a success: in 2019, his most recent show, An Evening with Malcolm Turnbull, had a sell-out run at the world-famous Sydney Opera House.