Jordan Nicola Bridget Raskopoulos is an Australian comedian, singer, and television personality. She wrote and performed the

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

sketch comedy show ''

The Ronnie Johns Half Hour ''The Ronnie Johns Half Hour'' (full name ''The Ronnie Johns Good Times Campfire Jamboree Half Hour Show (Now on Television)'') was an Australian sketch comedy show produced by Jigsaw Entertainment and the Ten Network, which premiered in Octob ...

'', and was lead singer for

comedy rock Comedy rock is a genre of rock music that is Comedy music, comedic in nature. It is often mixed with satirical music, satire or irony.V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, ''All music guide to rock: the definitive guide to rock, pop, and ...

group

the Axis of Awesome The Axis of Awesome were an Australian comedy music act with members Jordan Raskopoulos, Lee Naimo and Benny Davis, active from 2006 to 2018. The trio covered a wide variety of performance styles and performed a combination of original materia ...

(2006–2018). She came out as a

transgender woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

in 2016.

Early life and education

Jordan Raskopoulos was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. Her father is former footballer

Peter Raskopoulos Peter Raskopoulos (born 22 February 1962) is an Australian former association football player. Playing career Club career Raskopoulos played his youth football for Earlwood Wanderers before being signed for Sydney Olympic for the first season ...

, and her brother is

Steen Raskopoulos Steen Raskopoulos (born 3 July 1987) is an Australian comedian, actor and improviser. He is best known for his live character solo sketch shows, playing Nick Fletcher in ''The Office'' (Australia), playing Dr. Evan in '' The Duchess'' (Netfli ...

, a fellow comedian.

Career

Comedy and acting

In 2003, Raskopoulos became involved with Impro Australia's

Theatresports Theatresports is a form of improvisational theatre, which uses the format of a competition for dramatic effect. Opposing teams can perform scenes based on audience suggestions, with ratings by the audience or by a panel of judges. Developed by di ...

events including The

Belvoir St Theatre Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre comprises two performing spaces: the Upstairs Theatre and the small ...

and the Cranston Cup competitions, winning state and national titles. In 2005, she became part of the university sketch comedy supergroup The 3rd Degree, who performed at the

Melbourne International Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...

. This group formed the base of the Network Ten's

Logie award The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Television in Australia, Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The eve ...

-winning cult ensemble sketch comedy television show ''

'', in which Raskopoulos starred and for which she wrote.Jordan Raskopoulos' Dominant Claw
Australian Comedy Review, 23 April 2007. After the success of ''The Ronnie Johns Half Hour'', Raskopoulos went on to appear in ''

Stupid, Stupid Man ''Stupid, Stupid Man '' is an Australian television comedy which originally aired on TV1. It is set in the office of the fictional men's magazine ''COQ'' (''Chap's Own Quarterly''), parodying such men's magazines as ''FHM'' and ''Ralph''. The fi ...

'', ''

Stand Up Australia ''Stand Up Australia'' was an Australian comedy TV program locally produced by The Comedy Channel from 2006 to 2008. It was hosted by Cameron Knight, and featured four Australian or international comedians on each one-hour show. Season two was p ...

'', '' Hole in the Wall'', ''

Good News Week ''Good News Week'' is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and 11 February 2008 to 28 April 2012. The show's initial run aired on ABC until being bought by Network Ten in ...

'' and ''

Thank God You're Here ''Thank God You're Here'' is an Australian television improvised comedy program created by Working Dog Productions, which premiered on 5 April 2006 on Network 10, where it aired for the first three and from the fifth season onwards; the fourt ...

'', and has provided voices for the

ABC2 ABC Family is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of family and teen entertainment programming. The channel oper ...

machinima Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, ma ...

series ''The Team''. She was a team captain for a season of the

SBS Television The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS ...

sports show ''The Squiz''.The Squiz on SBS
SBS. In 2007, her debut solo stage show was called ''The Adventures of the Man with the Dominant Claw''. From 2006 until 2018, Raskopoulos fronted the award-winning musical comedy trio

, whose parody song "4 Chords" has received over 81 million hits on YouTube and is one of the highest-rated comedy videos on the site. The group came to attention after the release of their songs parodying the 2007 Australian federal election and received a Moosehead award at the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival for their show ''The Axis of Awesome Comeback Spectacular''.Infinity Rock Explosion!
, Neos Kosmos, 19 January 2010. From 2009, the Axis of Awesome produced four albums and toured extensively in the United States, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia, with sold-out seasons at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. After a hiatus in 2017, they officially announced they had broken up in 2018. Raskopoulos was one of a cast of voice actors in the Australian comedy sci-fi feature film ''

Lesbian Space Princess ''Lesbian Space Princess'' is a 2025 Australian adult animated science fiction comedy film written and directed Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese in their directorial debut. It features the voices of Shabana Azeez, Bernie Van Tiel, Gemma Chu ...

'', which premiered at the

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...

in October 2024.

TV appearances

With the Axis of Awesome, Raskopoulos appeared on '' Q&A'', ''

'' and '' The Footy Show''. In 2022, she appeared on ''

Question Everything "Question Everything" is a song recorded by the American rock band 8stops7, from their 1999 album ''In Moderation''. It was released in 2000 as a single. The song reached the US rock charts, peaking at number sixteen on Mainstream Rock Tracks, at ...

''.

Writing and streaming

Prior to publicly coming out as a

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

IN 2016, Raskopoulos wrote articles on

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

issues for ''

Junkee Junkee.com is an Australian popular culture and news website run by new media company Junkee Media. It covers various topics including film, university, food, TV, politics, travel, career, health, and Internet culture. Its target demographic is ...

'' under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

Nicola Fierce. Raskopoulos also streams on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

under the username JordanRasko. On April 26, 2020, Raskopoulos posted a video featuring a

parody song Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or copying existing (usually well known) musical ideas, and/or lyrics, or copying the particular style of a composer or performer, or even a general style of music. In music, parody has been us ...

titled "We Built This Clitty," a parody of

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 1 ...

's "

We Built This City "We Built This City" is the debut single by American rock band Starship, from their 1985 debut album '' Knee Deep in the Hoopla''. It was written by English musicians Martin Page and Bernie Taupin, who were both living in Los Angeles at the time ...

." The content of the song centers around Raskopoulos' personal experience with

Gender Reassignment Surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their gender identity. The phrase is most often associated ...

, employing humour as a narrative element. , the video had accumulated 11,187 views and garnered 399 likes.

Logies controversy

Raskopoulos was cast in the supporting role of Trax in the 2012 movie '' Underground: The Julian Assange Story'' along with

Rachel Griffiths Rachel Anne Griffiths (born 1968) is an Australian actress. List of awards and nominations received by Rachel Griffiths, Her accolades include a Golden Globe Award, three AACTA Awards, and nominations for an Academy Award and four Primetime Em ...

Anthony LaPaglia Anthony LaPaglia (, ; born 31 January 1959) is an Australian actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen he has received several accolades including three AACTA Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. For his starring role as Jac ...

and Alex Williams. In January 2013, Raskopoulos requested users of the internet forum ''

Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, Internet forum, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard Kyanka, Richard "Lowtax" K ...

'' to vote for her in the most popular actor category of the 2013 Logie Awards, promising in return to allow site users to write her acceptance speech. Some news outlets characterised this as "hacking" the Logies, as Raskopoulos, who despite a high-profile international comedy career was relatively unknown in Australian acting circles. Raskopoulos herself described her campaign as no different to any ordinary "fan" campaign.

Personal life

Raskopoulos is a

lesbian. She publicly

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as transgender in 2016 in a video called "What's Happened To Jordan's Beard" revealing that she got rid of her beard in February 2015 and that it would never come back as she was now transgender. She kept her given name but added the middle names Nicola and Bridget. She has

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple con ...

and spoke about her

anxiety disorder Anxiety disorders are a group of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal functions are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause phys ...

at a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

talk in 2017. Raskopoulos plays

roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played on an oval track by two teams of five skaters. It is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leaguesA Roller Derby league is synonymous with an individual club or team in other team sports, as ...

and has played ''

Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987 ...

'' since she was 12 years old.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Personal websiteThe Axis of Awesome
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raskopoulos, Jordan 1982 births Australian people of Greek descent Australian stand-up comedians Living people Australian LGBTQ singers Australian LGBTQ comedians Transgender comedians Transgender women singers Lesbian comedians Lesbian singers Australian lesbian musicians Australian transgender musicians Australian transgender women LGBTQ people from New South Wales 21st-century Australian women singers People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Australian actors with disabilities Singers with disabilities Transgender people with disabilities 21st-century Australian LGBTQ people Australian women comedians Comedians from Sydney Transgender lesbians