Nikki Osborne’s a sunshine girl. Growing up in Queensland she knew at a very early age that performing was her thing. In fact at the age of four years she used to put on Michael Jackson shows at family barbecues (she is known to still do this performance on occasion).

“I have always loved making people laugh, and crafting my own shows,” explains Nikki. “I never really went down the modelling route, I didn’t want to be told what to do. I did however get my first big break straight out of drama school, for a US mini-series directed by Peter Bogdanovich which was a big deal. In fact he told me right after my audition that I had the part, and that never happens, so it was a great start. After that I did a bit of drama here and there but during that time I started to discover that comedy was really my thing.”

"When I met Eddie McGuire in Melbourne by chance, and mentioned that I wanted a show, he just so happened to have one that was perfect for me. So I became host of the late night quiz show Quiz Mania. And that really was the perfect vehicle for me. It gave me so many flying hours of television late at night when there was no pressure to really finesse my jokes and my routine and get the hang of adlibing on air.

Nikki attended drama school in Qld before moving to Sydney to graduate. She lived there for two years before she realised the men just weren’t her type! Says Nikki, "So I moved to Melbourne, went to Bunnings, met my Mr Darcy and lived happily ever after…"

"My husband and I were living in ‘Prahmton’ – and we really wanted to buy a property but prices were just too expensive for what you were getting. He’s a landscape architect so he really wanted land and I wanted to be by the sea so we just travelled south until we found ‘land by sea’ which is how we ended up in McCrae."

Nikki and her family are now firmly Mornington Peninsula residents, with two sons aged 10 and 6 who attend local schools. “I do love the community feeling, because I know everybody and that’s quite nice. It might not be so great if you're single, but for family life it is a dream. And the area is just beautiful. We’ve got wineries in our backyard, we’ve got surf beaches around the corner, then you’ve got the bay beaches and the best restaurants, I think, in Victoria. We’re really a part of the community – they even put my press clippings on the wall in my local café which is so nice!”

Nikki is now host of the brand new show 'Find Me a Dream Home' which is a spin off from the US series. "The opportunity just landed in my lap really which was very nice. It’s a similar concept to ‘Escape to the Country’ except the budgets are much, much bigger so the houses are amazing high spec properties. It’s fantastic for the audience to follow the journey of the buyers as well as being exposed to some fabulous homes," explains Nikki.

"Earlier this year I also decided to do a show about ‘spectrum’ traits at The Comedy Festival because I have a lot of experience with that - one of my sons was diagnosed with autism at 18 months of age. I thought it was the best way to de-stigmatise the condition and also give it some positive PR – all of my jokes are positive. Now he’s at school and he’s going to be put into an accelerated maths group – he’s doing algebra and multiplication in Prep. I’ve got a genius! That’s what my show is about – the highs and lows of being 'On The Spectrum'."

"Comedy and hosting are pretty much what I’m focused on at the moment. I love filming ‘Find Me a Dream Home’, it’s fun, it’s all adlib and it’s really nice shooting in beautiful locations every day. Whereas when you’re doing comedy you can end up in some stripper, rap venue in a back alley!"

"I have just been booked to do ‘Just For Laughs’ at the Sydney Opera House so I’m pretty damn excited about that, working alongside Peter Helliar, Dave Hughes, Nazeem Hussain – just the usual!"

"At the end of the day though one of my ultimate goals is to write, produce and direct. I currently have a comedy pilot in the works and I really enjoy writing, producing and directing my own stuff – that way I get to choose what parts to play and gets the funniest lines!"

Look out for ‘Find Me a Dream Home’ on 9Life in January 2019, and of course ‘Just for Laughs in November.’

You can follow Nikki on Facebook and Instagram too.

https://www.instagram.com/nikkiosborneofficial

https://www.facebook.com/nikki.osborne