Andrew Patrick O'KeefeAM is an Australian entertainer and former lawyer, best known for being the host of the game show Deal or No Deal. He was also the co-host of Weekend Sunrise alongside Monique Wright between 2006 and 2017. In 2015, he was announced as the host of The Chase Australia.
Legal career
O'Keefe worked as an intellectual property lawyer with Australian law firm Allens Arthur Robinson and, for a short time, with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Sydney.
Television career
O'Keefe first started his television career in 2003, starring in Channel Seven's AFI-nominated sketch show Big Bite. Later the same year he began hosting Deal or No Deal. In 2001, he was a member of the Australian Theatresports team that won the Just for Laughs Improv Tournament at the Montreal Comedy Festival. He played Theatresports most Sunday nights at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney, winning a Cranston Cup series with two-man team Dirty Harry's Bathwater. In 2005, O'Keefe co-hosted the historic tri-network tsunami appeal Reach Out with fellow presenters Eddie McGuire and Rove McManus on three commercial networks Seven, Nine and Ten. The appeal raised over $20 million for tsunami relief efforts around Asia. The event was such a success that the three teamed up the following year to host the Logie awards. In that same year, he hosted the short-lived Dragons Den. From 2007 until 2009, O'Keefe hosted the quiz show The Rich List and, between 2006 and 2017, took the helm of Weekend Sunrise, which he presented on Saturday and Sunday mornings with journalist Monique Wright. In addition he regularly substituted for David Koch on Sunrise. He presented the program for two weeks whilst Koch was on holidays during the summer period of 2013 alongside his former Weekend Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage. He no longer fills in on weekdays due to his commitments with The Chase Australia. On 31 May 2013, O'Keefe commenced playing the role of King Herod in the Australian tour of the Jesus Christ Superstar arena show and received "rave" reviews. However, on 14 June 2013, he was admitted to hospital with a serious neck injury requiring surgery, and was forced to relinquish the role for the rest of the tour. O'Keefe believed the injury was aggravated during a performance of the show. In 2015 O'Keefe began presenting Seven's new game show, The Chase Australia, which replaced struggling game shows Deal or No Deal which he hosted, and Million Dollar Minute in the 5:00pm timeslot. In December 2017, O'Keefe announced his resignation as co-host of Weekend Sunrise after 12 years with the show.
Community and charity work
O'Keefe is a past chairman of the White Ribbon Foundation in Australia, an organisation dedicated to the prevention of violence against women. He was one of the founding members of the campaign in Australia and has been an ambassador since 2004. The campaign is active in schools, workplaces, sports clubs, councils and other community organisations, and seeks to rally men and boys as leaders in the fight against violence. As a result of his work with the Foundation, O'Keefe was appointed to the inaugural National Council for the Prevention of Violence Against Women, which drafted the report Time for Action: Australia's National Plan for Reducing Violence Against Women and their Children on behalf of the federal government.
