Kiwi comedy queen Laura Daniel has joined the Seven Sharp team as a special correspondent.
The Dancing With The Stars NZ 2019 runner-up is stepping in for Tamati Rimene-Sproat, who has moved across to TVNZ 1’s Sunday on a six-month placement; Seven Sharp returns to our screens on Monday 27 January at 7pm on TVNZ 1.
Laura, who is a two-times Billy T award nominee, is no stranger to keeping Kiwi audiences entertained, having appeared on shows such as Jono & Ben and Funny Girls.
She and her partner of eight years, comedian Joseph Moore, started up the pop-music inspired comedy show, Two Hearts, and were also part of improv group, Snort.
The popular comedian says lightheartedly of her new role: “Back in 2013 I had my first ever job for television. Seven Sharp hired me for a one-off gig where I was an undercover actor wearing a fake pregnant belly and asking people to light my cigarettes. It’s obviously still a career highlight to this day, and I guess I thought of that as somewhat of an audition so am stoked that seven years later, they’ve remembered my greatest work and I’ve secured a spot on the team.”
Laura with partner Joseph Moore on the set of Dancing With The Stars NZ.
Laura once told NEXT magazine that the person she’d most like to interview is Barack Obama because she wanted to “ask him if he’ll sing on a parody track with me”.
And her advice to her younger self would be: “Always take big risks; be kind to everyone you meet.”
Stepping out of her comfort zone to compete on Dancing With The Stars NZ in 2019, Laura quickly proved a firm favourite with viewers, not least because she turned out to be a great dancer who had conquered the death drop dance move before rehearsals had even begun.
Watch Laura and dance partner Shae Mountain’s perfect-scoring performance on DWTS last year – they scored three 10s:
During filming for the reality TV show she admitted to Woman’s Day that she can struggle with self doubt, saying: “I struggle with self-doubt, dancing included. I can be like, ‘I’m not good enough and it was s*’ because after a long day, you’re exhausted,” she admits.
“At home, Joseph gives me big pep talks and advice. Not in the terms of dancing, because he can’t dance at all, but in staying positive. He’s always told me I’ll smash it and do amazing.”
Laura lost an incredible 18kg before Dancing With The Stars began as a result of going paleo and attending regular F45 sessions with Joseph.
“During the show [Jono and Ben], I’d put on a lot of weight, so I went Paleo and lost it. It’s been a gradual process and you can see the difference from my promo video for Jono and Ben, where I was wearing a sequin dress, versus my promo for Dancing with the Stars.”
Laura made it to the final two on DWTS with partner Shae Mountain, dancing for the charity Shine, a centre helping families of domestic violence, but missed out on taking home the DWTS trophy to Manu Vatuvei.
Laura and Shae got matching tattoos after the show wrapped.
Laura has also remained a close friend of fellow contestant Nadia Lim, even travelling to stay with the celebrity chef and her family in Italy during a recent trip to Europe.
