Suzie Wilks

Suzie Wilks is an Australian TV lifestyle presenter and host of six prime time television shows since 1997.

Career

Wilks' TV career began on the Nine Network replacing Tracey Dale on the Nine Network lifestyle series Our House in February 1998. She was recruited to host Changing Rooms (1998–2005), the Australian version of the very successful BBC lifestyle program, which premiered on the Nine Network in September 1998. That year Wilks became the first woman to host two prime-time shows on Australian television in the same year. In 1999, she dropped her Our House commitment to focus solely on Changing Rooms. That success continued through into 2001 with the series spinoff Changing Rooms Special Operations and concurrently a new series Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner which ran for one season.

After an eight-year run on Changing Rooms, Wilks resigned to return to her home town, Melbourne. She then hosted ‘Body Work’ for the Nine Network, which won its weekly timeslot. This was followed by a special called Mothers In War, again on the Nine Network.

Since Wilks' time on Changing Rooms she has accepted invitations to various celebrity events and TV programs. In 2002 she drove in (and crashed out of) the celebrity race at the Australian Grand Prix. In 2004, Melbourne's Age newspaper named her as one of Melbourne's Top 25 sexiest people. She was a celebrity contestant on the Seven Network's Dancing with the Stars (2005, 2007). She also won her episode of the 2008 series The Singing Bee and made two appearances on Network Ten's Thank God You’re Here (2006, 2007) as an ensemble cast member.

During the years 2006–2008 Wilks broadened her media experience with a weekly radio show Lunch With Suzie Wilks on Melbourne radio's 3AW. In 2007 she accepted a speaking part on the Australian movie December Boys alongside popular English actor Daniel Radcliffe.^[1]

Wilks maintains a portfolio of several national and local product endorsements and in the past has featured in TV and press advertisements for Holden cars and Cadbury chocolates. She is currently the face of the Australand property group and is signed to Solomons Flooring with The Suzie Wilks Collection of carpets. In 2009 she coauthored a book called 'RUEA?' (Are You Emotionally Available?)

At the end of 2009, Wilks resigned as host of the Victorian edition of 'Postcards', a local travel series broadcast on the Nine Network with Giaan Rooney replacing her in 2010.

Personal life

Born and raised in Melbourne to parents Barry and Ann Wilks (deceased), Wilks completed her schooling at Carey Baptist Grammar School in suburban Kew. After further studies, she was awarded a Certificate of Journalism. By the age of 22, she was an experienced renovator, having transformed her first house, a Victorian weatherboard in suburban Richmond. By the time of Changing Rooms, she had started her second renovation – a second storey addition to a house in Hawthorn. Wilks also renovated her current home.

Wilks is committed to a number of animal related charities. She is an active voice against animal experimentation for the Australian Association for Humane Research (AAHR) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Wilks is also an Australia Day Ambassador.

She married Nick O'Halloran on 20 August 2010 in Melbourne. Suzie Wilks is currently estranged from her ex-husband Nick O'Halloran.^[2]

References