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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

Jordan Raskopoulos
Jordan Nicola Bridget Raskopoulos is an Australian comedian, singer, and television personality. She wrote and performed the Network Ten sketch comedy show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, and was lead singer for comedy rock group the Axis of Awesome (2006–2018). She came out as a transgender woman in 2016.

Early life and education

Jordan Raskopoulos was born in Sydney, Australia. Her father is former footballer Peter Raskopoulos, and her brother is Steen Raskopoulos, a fellow comedian.

Career

Comedy and acting

In 2003, Raskopoulos became involved with Impro Australia's Theatresports events including The Belvoir St Theatre Theatresports and the Cranston Cup competitions, winning state and national titles. In 2005, she became part of the university sketch comedy supergroup The 3rd Degree, who performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This group formed the base of the Network Ten's Logie award-winning cult ensemble sketch comedy television show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, in which Raskopoulos starred and for which she wrote.

After the success of The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, Raskopoulos went on to appear in Stupid, Stupid Man, Stand Up Australia, Hole in the Wall, Good News Week and Thank God You're Here, and has provided voices for the ABC2 machinima series The Team. She was a team captain for a season of the SBS Television sports show The Squiz. In 2007, her debut solo stage show was called The Adventures of the Man with the Dominant Claw.

From 2006 until 2018, Raskopoulos fronted the award-winning musical comedy trio the Axis of Awesome, whose parody song "4 Chords" has received over 81 million hits on YouTube and is one of the highest-rated comedy videos on the site. The group came to attention after the release of their songs parodying the 2007 Australian federal election and received a Moosehead award at the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival for their show The Axis of Awesome Comeback Spectacular. From 2009, the Axis of Awesome produced four albums and toured extensively in the United States, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia, with sold-out seasons at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. After a hiatus in 2017, they officially announced they had broken up in 2018.

Raskopoulos was one of a cast of voice actors in the Australian comedy sci-fi feature film Lesbian Space Princess, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2024.

TV appearances

With the Axis of Awesome, Raskopoulos appeared on Q&A, Good News Week and The Footy Show. In 2022, she appeared on Question Everything.

Writing and streaming

Prior to publicly coming out as a trans woman IN 2016, Raskopoulos wrote articles on transgender issues for Junkee under the pseudonym Nicola Fierce.

Raskopoulos also streams on YouTube and Twitch under the username JordanRasko. On April 26, 2020, Raskopoulos posted a video featuring a parody song titled "We Built This Clitty," a parody of Starship's "We Built This City." The content of the song centers around Raskopoulos' personal experience with Gender Reassignment Surgery, employing humour as a narrative element. As of 5 February 2024, the video had accumulated 11,187 views and garnered 399 likes.

Logies controversy

Raskopoulos was cast in the supporting role of Trax in the 2012 movie Underground: The Julian Assange Story along with Rachel Griffiths, Anthony LaPaglia and Alex Williams. In January 2013, Raskopoulos requested users of the internet forum Something Awful to vote for her in the most popular actor category of the 2013 Logie Awards, promising in return to allow site users to write her acceptance speech. Some news outlets characterised this as "hacking" the Logies, as Raskopoulos, who despite a high-profile international comedy career was relatively unknown in Australian acting circles. Raskopoulos herself described her campaign as no different to any ordinary "fan" campaign.

Personal life

Raskopoulos is a transgender lesbian. She publicly came out as transgender in 2016 in a video called "What's Happened To Jordan's Beard" revealing that she got rid of her beard in February 2015 and that it would never come back as she was now transgender. She kept her given name but added the middle names Nicola and Bridget.

She has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and spoke about her anxiety disorder at a TEDx talk in 2017.

Raskopoulos plays roller derby and has played Warhammer 40,000 since she was 12 years old.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2012 Underground: The Julian Assange Story Trax
2019 I Am Woman George Sylvia
2024 Lesbian Space Princess Voice

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2005–2006 The Ronnie Johns Half Hour Various characters 26 episodes
2006 The Team Benedict Voice
2008 Stupid, Stupid Man Clown Boy Episode: "The Fifteenth Floor"
2013 #7DaysLater Father O'Rielly / Herb / Dog Whisperer 3 episodes
2014 In a Woman's World Toby Episode: "Picking Up"
2014 Clean and Jerk Richie Television film
2015 About Tonight The Axis of Awesome - Host Episode: "May the Fourth Be with You"
2015 How Not to Behave Ensemble Cast 2 episodes
2016 The Wizards of Aus Marvolo Episode: "Molten Gelatinous Sex Ball"
2021 Wakefield Anne Episode #1.3
2022 Question Everything Herself Season 2, episode 3


References

  1. ^ Impro Australia, ImproAustralia.com.au.
  2. ^ Jordan Raskopoulos' Dominant Claw, Australian Comedy Review, 23 April 2007.
  3. ^ The Squiz on SBS, SBS.
  4. ^ Don't call me 'Clawed' Archived 29 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The Blurb.
  5. ^ Infinity Rock Explosion! Archived 14 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Neos Kosmos, 19 January 2010.
  6. ^ "Lesbian Space Princess". Adelaide Film Festival. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  7. ^ "What's Happened To Jordan's Beard?". YouTube. 14 February 2016. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
  8. ^ We Built This Clitty on YouTube. Jordan Raskopoulos, 27 April 2020.
  9. ^ Jordan Raskopoulos as Trax. Underground: The Julian Assange Story. Archived 16 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Duck, Siobhan; Gillett, Christopher (15 January 2013). "Actor from Underground: The Julian Assange Story in web ridicule campaign over Logie votes". Herald Sun.
  11. ^ "Vote for me to win a Logie award. You can write my acceptance speech".
  12. ^ Idato, Michael (15 January 2013). "'Bit of a joke' as actor turns to web for Logie tilt". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  13. ^ Raskopoulos, Jordan [@JordanRasko] (16 October 2018). "I am a white trans lesbian women and I can firmly say that none of the problems that I encounter stem from being white. Being white is a sweet deal. If you need the government to affirm that your whiteness is "ok" then you're a fucking baby" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. ^ Croffey, Amy (15 February 2016). "The Axis of Awesome's Jordan Raskopoulos transitions to a woman". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  15. ^ Raskopoulos, Jordan [@jordanrasko] (31 August 2020). "Do other ADHDers who wear glasses find that your ADHD symptoms are worse when you're not wearing them? Somehow it feels like my eyes being unable to focus impacts on my brains ability to focus" (Tweet). Retrieved 30 May 2022 – via Twitter.
  16. ^ "Living with High Functioning Anxiety – Jordan Raskopoulos".
  17. ^ Raskopoulos, Jordan (2 February 2018). "How I fell in love with roller derby | Jordan Raskopoulos". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
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