Samuel Jonathan McMillan (born: July 2, 1983), better known by his stage name Sammy J and online as sammyjcomedian, is a comedian and musician who has worked on television since 2003 and stand-up since 1999.
Background[]
Born in Frankston, Victoria, McMillan studied law at the University of Melbourne for two and a half years, where he directed and appeared in the Melbourne Law Comedy Revue. He was a member of United Nations Youth Australia and was editor of its newsletter in 1999 and 2000. He says he was more interested in writing jokes than studying, and halfway through the course decided to drop out. He subsequently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications) in 2006 and began to pursue a full-time comedy career.
He performs under the stage name "Sammy J", a contraction of his full name, Samuel Jonathan McMillan. The first time he publicly used the stage name was during a performance on Hey Hey It's Saturday's "Red Faces" segment in 1999. In 2006, McMillan took the Best Newcomer award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his debut solo show, Sammy J's 55 Minute National Tour. In 2009, McMillan created a one-man musical comedy show inspired by his schooldays titled 1999. In 2011 he featured in an episode of ABC TV's Comedy Warehouse series, and in 2012 headlined the inaugural Jakarta Fringe Festival alongside Bill Bailey. In 2017 his solo show Hero Complex toured Australia, telling the story of his childhood love of The Phantom. The show won Best Comedy at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and McMillan was nominated for Best Comedy Performer at the 2017 Helpmann Awards.
He has appeared on various Australian television shows including Spicks and Specks, Good News Week and Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, and wrote and performed on The Comedy Channel's satirical news show The Mansion. In 2013 he hosted Wednesday Night Fever, a satirical sketch show on ABC television, conducting interviews and performing songs based on the week's news. During the 2016 Australian federal election, McMillan created and hosted Sammy J's Playground Politics, a series of political satire shorts on ABC iview in the style of Play School, which became a recurring segment on his own show Sammy J's Democratic Party that premiered in May 2017.
In 2018, McMillan inherited the Clarke and Dawe time slot on ABC television, performing a weekly satirical sketch before the news. Popular characters from this series include the "Government Coach" and "National Yoga". His comedic responses to the COVID-19 pandemc have attracted millions of views online.
McMillan is an ambassador for both Oxfam Australia and the youth mentoring organisation Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia. In April 2018, he released his first book, The Long Class Goodnight, under his stage name Sammy J. From 2016 to 2017 he went on a national tour of Australia and licked every state parliament building, ending the tour by licking Parliament House, Canberra.
In November 2019, the ABC announced that McMillan would host ABC Radio Melbourne's Breakfast show from 20 January 2020 replacing Jacinta Parsons and Sami Shah. In May 2020, McMillan's song "Pink Clouds" was announced as the winner of the International Songwriting Competition, in the comedy category. Some of McMillan's influences include Lano and Woodley, Tom Lehrer, Tony Martin, Shaun Micallef and Adam Hills.
Content[]
Sammy J has been inactive since 2019, prior to that his videos comprised of recordings of his previous stand-up acts, songs and interviews. His most viewed video has over 1 million views.
