Chris Parker (comedian)

Christopher Parker (born 1990) is a New Zealand actor, comedian and writer. He currently appears as a contestant on Celebrity Treasure Island.
== Early life ==
Parker grew up in Christchurch with dancing aspirations, before attending drama school Toi Whakaari in Wellington, graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Acting.
== Career ==
After moving to Auckland, he joined improv group Snort in its embryonic stages, which led to being cast as Hudson and Halls|David Halls in the hit stage play Hudson and Halls Live. In 2016, he won Actor of the Year at the Wellington Theatre Awards for this role.
Other stage acting credits include Shortland Street: The Musical, Gays in Space, and Another Dead Fag by Sam Brooks.
Parker has also written and performed extensively with Tom Sainsbury on live shows such as The Opening Night Before Christmas, Camping, D.O.C.ing, Giggly Gerties, and Hauraki Horror.
He also created and performed several sketch comedy shows with Hayley Sproull, including Tighty Whiteys, The Outsiders' Guide, and Milky Bits.
Parker won the Fred Award in 2018 for his solo comedy show Camp Binch. The Fred Award is the highest honour at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, awarded to the best show written and performed by a New Zealand comedian. He had previously won the Best Newcomer (Auckland) Award in 2015 for his first solo show, No More Dancing in the Good Room.
In 2020 and 2021, Parker performed his show How I Felt, based on his experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand|Covid-19 lockdown, where he gained prominence for his attempts to felt on Instagram Live. The felting videos were so popular that, in 2020, a hat that Parker created was added to the collection at Auckland Museum, and a photo of him wearing the hat was bought by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
On screen, Parker has written for and appeared in many local comedy shows such as Funny Girls, Jono and Ben and his podcast slash web series The Male Gayz (with fellow Fred Award winner Eli Matthewson). He has appeared in 7 Days, Golden Boy, Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Panthers.
 
Parker currently appears as a contestant in the 2021 season of Celebrity Treasure Island, a reality-competition television show in the style of Survivor. He is competing on behalf of Rainbow Youth, a charity that provides education, information, support and advocacy for queer, gender diverse, takatāpui and intersex youth in New Zealand.
 
== Personal life ==
Parker came out as gay at the age of 21. He lives in the Auckland suburb of Kingsland with his partner Micheal, who is a designer and artist. 
==Filmography==
Key
	Denotes productions that have not yet been released
===Film===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
2017	Kiwi Christmas 	Jean Paul	
2017	The Breaker Upperers	Groom 	
2020	Nude Tuesday 	Stefan 	
2020	Baby Done 	Barista 	
2021	Canary in the Cradle	Boyo 	Short film
===Television===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
2012 	Girl vs Boy 	Olaf 	Three seasons
2014 	Agent Anna 	Dougal 	Guest
2015 - 2017 	Funny Girls 	Various 	Also a writer
2017 	My Kitchen Rules Extra - The Lab 	Presenter 	
2018 - present	The Great Kiwi Bake Off - An Extra Slice	Presenter 	
2018 - present	Golden Boy 	Derek 	
2018 	Jono and Ben 	Chris 	Also a writer
2018 - present	7 Days 	Himself 	
2021 	The Panthers 	Julius 	Guest
2021 	SIS 	Ian the Immigration Officer/Chris the Creator	Guest
2021 	Have You Been Paying Attention? 	Himself 	
 
Category:1990 births
Category:Living people
Category:New Zealand comedians
Category:New Zealand television actors