# Tziporah Malkah

Tziporah Atarah Malkah (born Katherine Helen Fischer; 30 November 1973) is an Australian model, actress and TV host.

## Early life

Katherine Helen Fischer was born on 30 November 1973 at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia, the daughter of Pru Goward and university economics lecturer Alastair Fischer Ph.D. She is the third eldest of ten children.
Malkah spent the best part of a year in Pune, India, and Reading, UK, in 1978 with her family when her father took his sabbatical. Once back in Adelaide, Malkah attended Glen Osmond Primary School.
When Malkah was nine, her parents' marriage ended, and her mother left the family home, her husband and the children in Adelaide, and moved to Sydney. When the matter of the children came up in family court, her mother said that she did not want her children. During this year Malkah continued to attend Highgate Primary School in Adelaide A year later her mother moved in with David Barnett in Canberra. It was at about that time that her mother, engaged in a legal battle over child support and property, changed her mind and demanded the children. Malkah then was moved to Canberra, where she attended Red Hill Primary School for two years and then Canberra Girls' Grammar School for three years before going to Narrabundah College for a year. She left school at fifteen to pursue her modelling career.

## Modelling

In 1987, at the age of 13, Malkah won the Dolly Covergirl of the Year competition and was touted as the next big Australian supermodel.
In 1988 she appeared in a Nescafe cinema release only commercial also featuring INXS. By the early 1990s, she had become a high-profile model working in Sydney and New York, where she had moved to aged sixteen in 1990.. She did shoots for Bloomingdales, Glamor magazine and Mademoiselle, and was featured on the covers of Dolly, Cleo, Elle, Follow Me, Black + White magazine and Vogue Australia. In 1993 she became the face of Oil of Ulan, Australia. In 2000 she made a Leggos TV commercial where she spoke in Italian throughout. Leggos made a series of commercials starring “iconic Australians”, including Gough Whitlam, Shane Warne, Kerri Anne Kennerly and Malkah.
In 2005–2006, Malkah was the face of AMP Capital Shopping Centres in Australia.

## Film and television

In 1993, Malkah had a role in the Australian film Sirens, playing alongside Elle Macpherson, Portia de Rossi, Sam Neill, Hugh Grant and Ben Mendelsohn as one of the three life models of painter Norman Lindsay.
In 1994, Malkah and Sirens co-star Portia de Rossi made an HIV/AIDS awareness advert for The Albion Street Centre.
In 1995, Malkah was recruited for an ongoing role in the Network 10 TV soap opera Echo Point which aired for six months. She appeared in several of the Elle McFeast (Libbi Gorr) comedy specials on ABC TV such as Breasts (1996) and The Whitlam Dismissal (1996).
In 1996 Malkah was a celebrity guest on the television pilot episode, which then became the very first episode to be aired of the award winning ABC and, latterly, Channel 10 popular comedy flagship, Good News Week. She was a regular guest between 1996 and 2000, appearing in 14 episodes.
She acted alongside Academy Award Winner for Best Actor Geoffrey Rush in Twisted Tales: Bonus Mileage for Bryan Brown’s TV series made for the TCN9 Network, Australia.
She was a 1996 Nominee for a Logie for the Most Popular New Talent for Don Burke’s new TV show, Time Out For Serious Fun.
For two years (1996–1997), Malkah was the host of the Looney Tunes cartoon show What's Up Doc? on the Nine Network. In 1997, she had a small part in the Australian film Dust Off the Wings, a drama set amidst Sydney's surfing culture. In 2000, she starred in the horror film Blood Surf, filmed in the Philippines.
In 2001 she fronted the Channel 10 television special Kate Fischer's Myth of the Perfect Woman
Malkah starred as a blind girl who is courted by a struggling comedian in the Australian film comedy The Real Thing (2002) In 2002, she appeared in three episodes of the Channel 7 medical drama series All Saints.
In 2005, Malkah appeared on the Nine Network's Celebrity Overhaul, a show in which celebrities try to regain their fitness through good diet and exercise habits.
In 2006, Malkah appeared as a guest judge on the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) program Song For The Socceroos and as a contestant on the Seven Network TV show It Takes Two. The same year, she also made a guest appearance on the first series of The Chaser's War on Everything on ABC TV and also became the host of a limited-run series weekly clip show Top 40 Celebrity Countdown on the Seven Network. Malkah had a guest starring role in Home and Away for a few episodes.
In 2007, she filmed a short comedy video, Supermodel Hotdog, which aired on YouTube. The sketch, filmed at her LA apartment, self-satirised her popular image as a celebrity and movie star.
Despite living in Los Angeles, she regularly supported Australian television. Between 2006 and 2011 she appeared in 10 episodes of 20-1 an Australian series with hour long shows hosted by Bert Newton.
In January 2017, Malkah became a contestant on the Australian version of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! She was evicted by a public vote on day 31 after spending 30 days in the African jungle.
She hosted a segment on E! News a US TV Series based in Los Angeles for the Australian market.
She appeared with Alice Garner, Michael Hutchence, Chrissie Hynde and Ben Mendelsohn in the INXS music video Full Moon, Dirty Hearts.
She has also been a guest on The Project, Good Morning Australia,Today, Today Extra, A Current Affair, Rove Live, David Tench Tonight, Burke's Backyard, The Bob Downe Show, The Big Schmooze, Geofrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals and Full Frontal.

## Personal life

In 1998, Malkah moved to Los Angeles and became a United States citizen in 2009.

## Filmography

* Sirens (1993, film) as Pru
* Full Moon, Dirty Hearts by INXS (1993 music video)
* Echo Point (1995, TV series)
* Full Frontal (1995, TV series) as Guest
* What’s Up Doc? (1996–97, TV series) as host
* Good News Week (1996-96, S1-2) as Panellist
* Elle McFeast Special: Breasts (1996, TV special) as Guest
* Elle McFeast Special: The Whitlam Dismissal (1996, TV special) as Guest
* Twisted Tales (1996, TV series, 1 episode)
* The Munsters Scary Little Christmas (1996, TV movie)
* Dust Off the Wings (1997, film)
* Pigeon (1998, film)
* Murder Call (1998, TV series, S2E18: Bone Dead)
* Blood Surf (2000, film) as Cecily Herrold
* All Saints (2002, TV series, 3 episodes)
* The Real Thing (2002, film)
* The Foreigner (2003, film)
* Celebrity Overhaul (2005, TV series, S2) as Contestant
* The Chaser's War on Everything (2005, TV series) as Guest
* Top 40 Celebrity Countdown (2006, TV series) as Host
* It Takes Two (2006 TV series, S1) - Contestant (eliminated third
* I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (2017, TV series, S3) as Contestant

## Cultural references

In 1997, "Kate and Barbie", a portrait of Malkah by Australian painter Paul Newton was a finalist in the annual Archibald Prize exhibition and is now in her private art collection. Newton also painted another portrait of Malkah the same year titled "Homage to Madame X", now owned by her mother, Pru Goward. David Bromley painted her portrait in 2001.
In 1998 Australian band TISM released a song Kate, Fischer of Men, about Malkah.