Steve Vizard

Stephen William Vizard is an Australian television and radio presenter, producer, writer, lawyer and businessman. He is a research professor at Monash University and the University of Adelaide. Vizard has written popular and academic books on topics ranging from Australia's population policy to national myths, including Nation, Memory, Myth. He has also written for theatre, including the opera Banquet of Secrets, the musical Vigil, and The Last Man Standing, the Melbourne Theatre Company's centenary Gallipoli production. He has written for and produced various Logie and AFI award-winning television shows—from Fast Forward to Kangaroo Palace—and hosted his own five-night-a-week national tonight show, Tonight Live with Steve Vizard, for which he was three times nominated and won a Gold Logie in 1991. On radio, he has broadcast on the Austereo, Fairfax and Macquarie networks, and in 2011 was nominated for Best Talkback Presenter in Australia. Vizard founded one of Australia’s largest independent production houses, Artist Services, which was subsequently sold to ITV. He has been president of the National Gallery of Victoria and chairman of the Victorian Major Events Company, which secured events such as the World Swimming Championships (FINA World Aquatics Championships), World Cycling Championships (UCI Road World Championships), World Gymnastics Championships (World Artistic Gymnastics Championships), World Cup Soccer (FIFA World Cup), International Rugby Tests, Australian Fashion Week, the Australian Film Institute Awards (AACTA Awards), and devised the annual cultural exhibition programme Melbourne Winter Masterpieces. He has appeared on the cover of Time and Rolling Stone; was an elected representative to the 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention; and was Father of the Year in 2001. Vizard was embroiled in three highly publicised legal proceedings, resulting in civil penalties in 2005 for breaching directors' duties.