Quick Facts
Biography
Andrew Patrick O'Keefe AM (born 1 October 1971) is an Australian entertainer and former lawyer, best known for being the host of the game show Deal or No Deal. He is also the co-host of Weekend Sunrise alongside Monique Wright. In 2015 he was announced as the host of The Chase Australia.
Legal career
O'Keefe worked as an intellectual property lawyer with Australian law firm Allens Arthur Robinson and, for a short time, with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Sydney.
Television career
O'Keefe first started his television career in 2003, starring in Channel Seven's AFI-nominated sketch show Big Bite. Late the same year he began hosting Deal or No Deal, the first version of the show outside its home country of the Netherlands. It has been on screen continuously since 2003, has run to over 1,500 episodes to December 2010.
In 2001 he was a member of the Australian Theatresports team that won the Just for Laughs Improv Tournament at the Montreal Comedy Festival. He played Theatresports most Sunday nights at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney, winning a Cranston Cup series with two-man team Dirty Harry's Bathwater.
In 2005, O'Keefe co-hosted the historic tri-network tsunami appeal Reach Out with fellow presenters Eddie McGuire and Rove McManus on three commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten. The appeal raised over $20 million for tsunami relief efforts around Asia. The event was such a success that the three teamed up the following year to host the Logie awards.
In 2005 he hosted the short-lived Dragons Den.
From 2007 until 2009, O'Keefe hosted the quiz show The Rich List and in 2006 took the helm of Weekend Sunrise, which he currently hosts on Saturday and Sunday mornings with journalist Monique Wright. In addition he regularly substitutes for David Koch on Sunrise. He presented the program for two weeks whilst Koch was on holidays during the summer period of 2013 alongside his former Weekend Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage.
In 2010 O'Keefe appeared in the Christmas special episode of Review with Myles Barlow.
O'Keefe is also an accomplished singer, classically trained and qualified.
On 31 May 2013, O'Keefe commenced playing the role of King Herod in the Australian tour of the Jesus Christ Superstar arena show and received 'rave' reviews. However, on 14 June 2013, he was admitted to hospital with a serious neck injury requiring surgery, and was forced to relinquish the role for the rest of the tour. O'Keefe believed the injury was aggravated during a performance of the show.
In 2015 O'Keefe began presenting Seven's new game show, The Chase Australia, which replaced struggling game shows Deal or No Deal which he hosted, and Million Dollar Minute in the 5:00pm timeslot.
O'Keefe has frequently faced criticism of left bias in his interviews and moderation of debates. Tensions erupted when former Australian Labor Party leader Mark Latham accused him of having "a bet each way" during a heated debate about feminism and domestic violence. He has also been criticised by other notable individuals such as conservative commentator Miranda Devine and Senator Pauline Hanson.
Community and charity work
O'Keefe is a past chairman of the White Ribbon Foundation in Australia, an organisation dedicated to the prevention of violence against women. He was one of the founding members of the campaign in Australia and has been an ambassador since 2004. The campaign is active in schools, workplaces, sports clubs, councils and other community organisations, and seeks to rally men and boys as leaders in the fight against violence.
As a result of his work with the Foundation, O'Keefe was appointed to the inaugural National Council for the Prevention of Violence Against Women, which drafted the report Time for Action: Australia's National Plan for Reducing Violence Against Women and their Children on behalf of the federal government.
O'Keefe is also a supporter of several other charity organisations including the Garvan Institute for gene research, Kids of Kokoda, the Bell Shakespeare Company and The Wilderness Society.
Personal life
O'Keefe is one of five children. His father was Barry O'Keefe, a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He is a nephew of the Australian rock and roll singer Johnny O'Keefe and brother of University of Cambridge international lawyer Roger O'Keefe.
He attended Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, and then studied arts and law at the University of Sydney, where he was heavily involved in theatre sports and faculty revues.
He has an AMusA diploma in classical singing (baritone), was the frontman for several Sydney bands in the '90s and plays trumpet and piano.
He is also a keen swimmer and swims most days "to clear the cobwebs".
O'Keefe is married to Eleanor, a social worker, and together they have three children.