Ella Hooper

Ella Hooper
Ella Hooper in 2012
Background information
Birth name	Ella Keighery Hooper
Born	(1983-01-30) 30 January 1983 (age 34)
Origin	Violet Town, Victoria, Australia
Genres	Rock, indie, pop rock, country, acoustic
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Wah Wah
Associated acts	Killing Heidi, Broad, The Verses
Website	Ella Hooper website

Ella Keighery Hooper (born 30 January 1983) is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, radio presenter and TV personality. Hooper was the lead singer of Killing Heidi. The band formed in 1996 (when Ella was 13) and also featured her older brother Jesse Hooper. Their biggest hits were "Mascara" (no. 1, 30 January 2000, Australian charts), "Live Without It" (no. 5, 23 April 2000) and "Weir" (no. 6, 19 December 1999). Killing Heidi broke up in 2006. Ella and Jesse have performed small scale venues as an acoustic band, The Verses. Ella is now a radio presenter on 2DayFM and was one of the two captains in the short-lived revival of the ABC television show Spicks and Specks that commenced in February 2014.

Born in Melbourne, Victoria to Helen Keighery and Jeremy Hooper. Hooper grew up in Violet Town, a small rural township (950 people) 175 km north of Melbourne. After finishing Violet Town Primary School, Hooper travelled 27 km by bus to Benalla High School (called Benalla College from 1994) until Year 11. Her parents worked as English and drama teachers, and encouraged Hooper to develop her songwriting skills while Jesse became a guitarist very early on. The Hooper siblings wrote and performed songs for a 1996 Triple J competition and won with "Kettle". Hooper moved to Melbourne after Killing Heidi were signed to a recording deal with Wah Wah Music's Paul Kosky and Chris Robinson. They released "Weir" as their first single in August 1999, Hooper left secondary schooling to concentrate on touring Killing Heidi.

As a member of Killing Heidi, Hooper won four ARIA Awards in 2000: "Album of the Year" for Reflector, "Best Group", "Breakthrough Artist – Album" and "Best Rock Group". With Jesse, Hooper was awarded APRA 2001 Songwriter of the Year.