Michael Willesee Jr. is an Australian television journalist, who has worked in both print journalism and broadcasting.

Early life

Willesee is the son of the late Australian journalist Mike Willesee and brother of fellow journalist Amy Willesee. Their mother was Willesee senior's first wife and former Miss Australia, Joan Stanbury. Through his uncle, journalist and broadcaster Terry, the late author and cyclist Janet Shaw was his cousin. Michael graduated from Charles Sturt University at the end of 1988, and joined Mojo Advertising where he worked closely with some of the giants of the industry including Alan Morris and

Allan Johnston Allan Johnston (born 14 December 1973) is a Scottish football player and coach, who was most recently the manager of Queen of the South. Johnston started his professional playing career with Heart of Midlothian and then followed on to French ...

Career

Willesee began his career in journalism with '' The Australian'' newspaper in 1990. After completing his cadetship he moved to Los Angeles in 1991, freelancing for Sydney's '' The Sun-Herald'' newspaper as well as various US magazines. Later that year, he moved into television, working on the tabloid news television program '' Hard Copy'', produced by

Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...

. In 1992, Willesee moved to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where he joined the US version of '' A Current Affair'' at Fox Television, and again filing stories for Australian TV. Later that year he returned to Australia and accepted a role with the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

reporting for ''National Nine News'' before joining '' A Current Affair'' where he worked until late 1998. Michael then moved behind the camera, running a production company specialising in documentaries. His award-winning films covered diverse subjects including remote African tribes, true crime, religious phenomena and dangerous animals. In March 2014, Michael resigned from Sky News Australia to take up a job in the office of Treasurer

Joe Hockey Joseph Benedict Hockey (born 2 August 1965) is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He was the Member of Parliament for North Sydney from 1996 until 2015. He was the Treasurer of Australia in the Abbott Government from 18 September 2 ...

Personal life

On 26 August 2007, Michael announced his engagement to

's ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'' program reporter Allison Langdon and they later married in 2008. The couple had a son in January 2017, followed by a daughter in March 2019.

References

External links

Michael Willesee Sky News profile
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian journalists Australian television presenters Place of birth missing (living people) {{Australia-tv-bio-stub