Kellie Lynn Crawford, née Hoggart, is an Australian singer, actress and children's performer. Crawford was an original member of the Australian children's musical groupHi-5 from 1998 to 2008 and was also a member of pop groupTeen Queens. She left Hi-5 in December 2008 after ten years with the group.
Career
Crawford was born Kellie Lynn Hoggart in 1974. She began her career as a teenager appearing in Pizza Hut commercials. In 1991, at age 17, Crawford along with Liza Witt and Roxanne Clarke, formed an idea to bring back music from the past and recreate it as a pop music act. Initially, they tried to launch the project as a television idea set in the themed time of the 1960s. As the group experienced difficulties getting the television showoff the ground, they diverted their attentions towards simply creating music. They decided to name the group The Teen Queens, and from 1992 to 1993 the group released three top tenARIA singles. After the group split in 1993, Crawford continued to act in television and movies, and appear in commercials for companies such as Pizza Hut. Crawford was originally cast as Tracy Russell in Australia's long-running sitcom Hey Dad..!, but was replaced by Belinda Emmett. Crawford's next breakthrough came in 1998 when she was enlisted to join the new children's band and television show Hi-5 as the group's oldest and most commercially experienced member. She featured with a puppet named "Chatterbox", better known as "Chats", voiced originally by co-cast member Charli Robinson. Kellie and Chats' segment of the show, Word Play, promoted and educated children on language skills and recognition of sounds and noises. In October 2008, she announced that she would quit Hi-5 after ten years of commitment to the group alongside Nathan Foley. Following her exit from children's entertainment group, Hi-5, Crawford was featured in a racy Ralphcover story. She expressed her desire to establish herself as an adult model and actress for the older demographic. This received mixed reception but Crawford was confident that she is constantly advocating positive messages for all her target audiences. Crawford was announced as a judge for the Seven Network's talent program All Together Now in 2018. Since 2019, Crawford has been based in Melbourne, Australia and is a freelance voice-over artist and television actress.
Personal life
Born in Sydney, Kellie was educated at the Meriden School in Strathfield, a suburb of Sydney. Kellie is the youngest of two girls; her older sister is Kylle Hogart, who played the character of Roberta 'Robbie' Henderson in ABC TV's The Ferals. Her parents are Dennis and Sonjie. Through the show, she became good friends and eventually began dating fellow Hi-5cast member Nathan Foley. The couple became engaged in 2005 to be married in March 2007. On 7 December 2006, it was reported that Kellie and Nathan had decided to end their engagement. Apparently, their breakup had occurred some time prior to the reports. It is unknown whether the breakup was on amicable terms or otherwise. In 2007, Kellie became engaged to Addam Crawford. They married in May 2008. In 2012, Kellie now works for a Sydney Catholic Schoolperforming arts group called CaSPA. Throughout this career she acts as a mentor for other young performers and takes part in stage/logistics work. In 2017, Kellie is now a professional makeup artist. Her husband Addam died in October 2018.
