Melanie Bracewell

Bracewell grew up in Beach Haven in Auckland's North Shore, and is a niece of Test cricketers John Bracewell and Brendon Bracewell.[5] Bracewell attended Birkenhead College,[6] serving as Deputy Head Girl,[7] then studied Communication and Media Studies at University of Auckland.[8] Bracewell became interested in comedy as a child, as a teenager she wrote a comedic blog, and later moved into stand-up comedy.[4][9] Bracewell also worked as producer of the breakfast show on Radio Hauraki and appeared as a contestant on the Australian TV quiz show Have You Been Paying Attention?.[9][10] She co-hosts the Australian comedy new television show The Cheap Seats alongside Tim McDonald.

In 2019, Bracewell began writing for the TV show The Project in New Zealand.[9] Bracewell has also written for the series Wellington Paranormal.[11]

In 2020, Bracewell received international coverage when videos and photos of her impersonating Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern went viral. Ardern responded with: “You do my makeup better than I do.”[12] Bracewell and Ardern later met up and posted a TikTok video while Bracewell was dressed as Ardern.[13][14]

In 2020, Bracewell starred as Karen in The Eggplant,[17][18] a New Zealand teen drama crime-comedy series released to TVNZ OnDemand and YouTube.[19][20]

In 2019, Bracewell shared a screenshot on her Twitter account of a sexually explicit message which she said had come unprompted from someone in the Reddit cricketing community. A Reddit user later found a post from Bracewell in a subreddit soliciting sexual messages. A moderator from the Reddit cricketing community then contacted Bracewell asking her for details of who sent her the private message. She subsequently apologised and admitted her post was a joke. After her apology she received criticism on social media, with some accusing her of lying about sexual harassment and stereotyping Indians.[21][22]

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