Nuala Hafner

Hafner was born in London, England,[1] the daughter of the Ghanaian-born Australian television personality and celebrity chef, Dorinda Hafner. Her parents met in England, where her father, Julian, practised as a psychiatrist, and migrated to Adelaide in 1977, where Nuala was raised. The couple subsequently split up.[2]

She attended Adelaide's Pembroke School, Adelaide, where she was dux of her year before travelling to the UK and Europe. She did a stint of teaching drama in London, then in 1995 returned to Australia. She completed a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws at and Flinders University[1] in 2000 and was admitted to the bar.[3]

Hafner began her media career at the age of three months when she appeared in an advertisement for baby formula. She also starred for many years in the children's program The Book Place, and on Seven Adelaide's lifestyle program Discover. However, she is became known for working as a weather presenter for Seven News in Adelaide.[1]

Nuala joined Seven News Sydney in April 2003.[1] She presented the weather, and Canberra bulletins, until her final appearance on 22 December 2006. Haftner left to work overseas, filing reports from Seven's London Bureau.

In 2008, she took more of an active role in the network, appearing regularly on Sunrise, Weekend Sunrise and the now cancelled Seven HD show, The NightCap. In 2009, she moved back to Australia and became the entertainment editor on Sunrise, Weekend Sunrise and The Morning Show. In 2010, she was appointed as Melbourne correspondent for Sunrise with weather presenter Fifi Box being upgraded to entertainment editor.

In November 2011, she resigned from the Seven Network to return to her studies, with Nick Etchells replacing her on Sunrise. In January 2012 she filled in for Grant Denyer on there and in 2012 she returned as a guest reporter to the show.

In July 2013, Hafner was appointed as Melbourne-based news presenter for Network Ten's new breakfast show Wake Up hosted in Sydney by Natarsha Belling and James Mathison. Inside a brief period the programme lost about 50% of its audience share and rated by November 2013 lower than Breakfast, Network Ten axed the show the year before because of low ratings.[4]

In November 2014, Nuala returned to the Seven Network and regularly appeared on Sunrise and Weekend Sunrise.

Hafner has also studied drama at Flinders University and occasionally acts on stage.[3]

She continued her studies in psychology during her television career, for which she was awarded the Capstone Prize, and subsequently completed a Master of Clinical Psychology.[3][5]