Dilly Dallying

From an unlikely start with her 200,000-follower Tumblr blog Meladoodle, Melanie Bracewell has become one of New Zealand’s most successful and decorated comedians and writers.

Bracewell began her career winning Aotearoa’s RAW Comedy Quest, 7 Days Comedy Apprentice Award, Breakthrough Comedian of the Year Award, Best Newcomer Award, and the prestigious Billy T Award in just three years before heading across the ditch with much of the same results.

When the pandemic hit, she set her sights back on social media, earning millions of views and followers with her impressions of former prime minister Jacinda Ardern. Bracewell made the move to Australia in 2021 to host a new, now award-winning TV show called The Cheap Seats, adding to her impressive CV comprising writing credits for Wellington Paranormal, Time Bandits, The Rumours Are True, and more.

With regular appearances on 7 Days and The Project, Bracewell became a mainstay of New Zealand television. She has performed in Montreal, New York, and LA, and in 2024 toured the UK with her critically acclaimed show Forget Me Not before bringing a sell-out run of Attack of the Melanie Bracewell to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She rounded out her year on QI.

Following her globetrotting and comedy ladder scaling, Bracewell will be Dilly Dallying for the foreseeable future on tour, bringing her shenanigans to Welly Opera House audiences on the 19^th of June. Yet to write a proper bio for her show, Bracewell says that she is “back with a brand-new hour about returning to unfinished things later in life”. Now, back to her sudoku.