Ella Hooper

Ella Keighery Hooper (born 30 January 1983) is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, radio presenter and TV personality. Hooper was the lead singer of Killing Heidi. The band formed in 1996 (when Ella was 13) and also featured her older brother Jesse Hooper. Their biggest hits were "Mascara" (no. 1, 30 January 2000, Australian charts), "Live Without It" (no. 5, 23 April 2000) and "Weir" (no. 6, 19 December 1999). Killing Heidi broke up in 2006. Ella and Jesse have performed small scale venues as an acoustic band, The Verses. Ella is now a radio presenter on 2DayFM and was one of the two captains in the short-lived revival of the ABC television show Spicks and Specks that commenced in February 2014.

Born in Melbourne, Victoria to Helen Keighery and Jeremy Hooper. Hooper grew up in Violet Town, a small rural township (950 people) 175 km north of Melbourne. After finishing Violet Town Primary School, Hooper travelled 27 km by bus to Benalla High School (called Benalla College from 1994) until Year 11. Her parents worked as English and drama teachers, and encouraged Hooper to develop her songwriting skills while Jesse became a guitarist very early on. The Hooper siblings wrote and performed songs for a 1996 Triple J competition and won with "Kettle". Hooper moved to Melbourne after Killing Heidi were signed to a recording deal with Wah Wah Music's Paul Kosky and Chris Robinson. They released "Weir" as their first single in August 1999, Hooper left secondary schooling to concentrate on touring Killing Heidi.

As a member of Killing Heidi, Hooper won four ARIA Awards in 2000: "Album of the Year" for Reflector, "Best Group", "Breakthrough Artist – Album" and "Best Rock Group". With Jesse, Hooper was awarded APRA 2001 Songwriter of the Year.

Hooper was diagnosed with a cyst on her vocal cords which was subsequently removed.

Killing Heidi broke up in 2006. Hooper then began playing acoustic gigs at smaller venues in Australia alongside Jesse as The Verses.

In mid-2006 she toured Australia with the all-female musical line-up of Broad, alongside Australian pop musician Deborah Conway, among others.

Hooper was a regular guest on the ABC's musical quiz show Spicks and Specks; she has also appeared on the SBS programme RocKwiz and made an appearance on the premiere of David Tench Tonight.

The Verses' debut album, Seasons, was released on 13 August 2010.

In March 2011, she released her version of "On the Inside", the theme song to Prisoner.

On the music front, Ella has collaborated with artists such as Dan Sultan and Graveyard Train.

In 2012, Ella became the host, mentor and MC for The Telstra Road to Discovery, a respected talent development program that scours the country for the next generation of singing and songwriting talent.

In 2016, Ella made a surprise appearance in the seventh episode of an Australian documentary web series called How To Be A Fan With Hex.

Ella released her first solo single "Low High" on 9 November 2012. Low High was produced and recorded by Jan Skubizewski (Owl Eyes, Illy, Way of the Eagle) in his Collingwood studio. The song featured a guest performance by horror-country act, Graveyard Train.

"Häxan", her second single, was released on 26 April 2013, and launched at The Workers Club on 9 May 2013. A third single, "The Red Shoes", followed over a year later, in June 2014.

All three singles feature on Ella's debut album In Tongues, which was released on 21 November 2014 via Pledge Music.

Hooper returned to television on 5 February 2014, as one of two team captains (along with Adam Richard) in the comeback of the ABC's musical quiz show Spicks and Specks.

Singles