cribbed from the great foxymorons.com: Gina Anne Victoria Riley was born on the 16th of May 1961 (BeansTalk note: interestingly, imdb.com has her birthdate at 20 February 1966). She grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Canterbury, with parents John and Margaret and has one older brother and one sister. Gina is married to executive Rick McKenna and has a daughter - Maggie (currently 8). She is also the youngest of three kids, her dad is a psychiatrist and her mum is a housewife interested in alternative education.

Gina's aspiration of becoming a serious drama actor was side tracked into comedy when she met Glenn Robbins and Richard Stubbs in the 1980's. Starting out with stand up comedy, she quickly moved into television comedy such as Fast Forward, Big Girls Blouse, and Something Stupid; all for the Seven Network. Despite the fact she was side tracked into comedy, Gina has become one of the best-known and most talented Australia female comedians of our time.

In recent times, Gina appeared in both series of The Games (a spoof of the preparations for the Sydney Olympics) for ABC TV with John Clarke and Bryan Dawe. Her role of Gina, Marketing and Liaison Manager, saw her combine her comic timing, singing and dramatic skills to impress the public once again.

Gina is creator, writer and executive producer for Kath & Kim, which also features her singing talents in the opening titles for the cover of Anthony Newly's 'The Joker'. She was also part of the talented trio to co-write, co-produce and co-star in Big Girls Blouse. Like Jane Turner she acted in Full Frontal only in 1993, and was only a writer and performer in Fast Forward from 1990-92.

1n 1995, the Australian Writers Guild awarded her an AWGIE (Revue Sketch Category) for her work in Big Girls Blouse. At the same time as she was establishing herself as one of Australian television's funniest women, Gina was also pursuing her interest in theatre. In 1995, her dedication was rewarded when she received a Victorian Green Room Award for Best Female Artist in a Leading Role for her part in Falsettos, a Sydney Theatre Company production.

Gina trained as a classical singer; joined St Martin's Youth Theatre, where she met Jane Turner for the first time; co-hosted an ABC youth program with Richard Stubbs; set out to become a serious actor; then fell, or rather was dragged, into comedy. As the story goes, Stubbs and Robbins pulled Riley up on to stage at The Last Laugh one night, telling her she'd have to overcome any prejudices she had about impersonating people or starve. Gina also attended Swinburne Community School in Hawthorn (Melbourne) and now lives back in Melbourne after a few years in Sydney . Gina agrees that, in many ways, Kath & Kim is an extension of Dumb Street , the piss-take of Aussie soaps that she and Jane used to do on Fast Forward .

Gina on her relationship with Jane after meeting her: "We knew then that we had the same sense of humour and made each other laugh. We started writing sketches on Fast Forward but we didn't really work much as a pair then. That really happened in Big Girl's Blouse."

Gina about the characters: "Of all the sketches we'd done this was always the one we knew had legs because they were so easy to write for and we really knew the characters"

Most Recent Roles:

Kath & Kim (2004)

Kath & Kim (2003)

Bad Eggs (2003)

Kath & Kim (2002)

The Bob Downe Show(2000)

The Games (1998)

Something Stupid (1998)

Big Girl's Blouse (1994)

Full Frontal (1993)

The Making of Nothing (1993)