Kellie Crawford
Kellie Lynn Crawford (née Hoggart; born 1 May 1974), is an Australian singer, actress and children's performer. Crawford was an original member of the Australian children's musical group Hi-5 from 1998 to 2008. She left Hi-5 in December 2008 after ten years with the group.
Biography
Kellie Lynn Hoggart was born on 1 May 1974 in Sydney, her father, Dennis, was a professional professional soccer player originally from Glasgow, Scotland. While playing for York City F.C., Dennis met Yorkshire native, Sonjie, after the pair got married, they moved to Australia after Dennis got the opportunity to play for former soccer club, Sydney FC Prague. The youngest of two daughters, Kellie's older sister, Kyllé (also an actress), was most notable for playing the character of Roberta 'Robbie' Henderson in ABC show, The Ferals.
Hoggart was educated at the Meriden School in Strathfield, a suburb of Sydney. She struggled in school due to dyslexia.[1][2] In 1991, at age 17, Crawford along with Liza Witt and Roxanne Clarke, formed an idea to bring back music from the past and recreate it as a pop music act. Initially, they tried to launch the project as a television idea set in the themed time of the 1960s. As the group experienced difficulties getting the television show off the ground, they diverted their attentions towards simply creating music. They decided to name the group The Teen Queens, and from 1992 to 1993 the group released three top ten ARIA singles.
After the group split in 1993, Hoggart continued to act in television and movies, and appear in commercials for companies such as Pizza Hut.[3]
Hoggart's next breakthrough came in 1998 when she was enlisted to join the new children's band and television show Hi-5 as the group's oldest and most commercially experienced member. She featured with a puppet named "Chatterbox", better known as "Chats", voiced originally by co-cast member Charli Robinson (later Sophie Katinis, Erin Marshall and Noni McCallum). Kellie and Chats' segment of the show, Word Play, promoted and educated children on language skills and recognition of sounds and noises.
In 2007, Kellie became engaged to lighting designer, Addam Crawford. They got married in May 2008.[4] Addam died in October 2018.[5]
In October 2008, she announced that she would quit Hi-5 after ten years of commitment to the group alongside Nathan Foley. She was replaced by Lauren Brant.
Following her exit from children's entertainment group, Hi-5, Crawford was featured in a Ralph cover story. She expressed her desire to establish herself for the older demographic. This received mixed reception but Crawford was confident that she is constantly advocating positive messages for all her target audiences.
Crawford was announced as a judge for the Seven Network's talent program All Together Now in 2018.
Since 2019, Crawford has been based in Melbourne, Australia and is a freelance voice-over artist and television actress, however, in 2023, Crawford returned to her home town of Sydney to continue working as an actress and voice artist.