The Woman Behind The Myf

Pop-culture queen, Myf Warhurst, opens up to Susan Horsburgh about embracing her inner dag and finding her happy place at 46.

- Susan Horsburgh

Myf Warhurst had her first, humiliating bra fitting with a sergeant-major type sales assistant in Mildura – in a shop called Dawnice Body Fashions. That was in the 1980s, when Myf (then known as “Myffy”) also sported a mullet hairdo, memorized the entire Thriller dance routine, and fell in lifelong love with the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton country duet, Islands in the Stream. In other words, her upbringing was as embarrassing as ours.

Myf delights in the uncoolness of it all, and even now, decades later, that daggy Mildura schoolgirl doesn’t seem far from the surface. This is, after all, a woman who names Twisties as her number-one addiction. “I hate to say it, but I’m pretty normal,” says the 46-year-old radio and TV presenter. “I am who I am. I don’t have an act.”

For the past two decades, Australian audiences have loved her for it, especially during her seven-year stint as team captain on Spicks and Specks, the ABC music quiz show that’s still on repeat eight years after it ended. Smart and sunny, cheering on teammates and opponents alike, Myf won legions of fans with her everywoman appeal – and proved that successful TV women don’t have to fit a cardboard cut-out.

These days, Myf’s personality – and prodigious music knowledge – is still her stock in trade. She co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest on SBS in May and presents a weekly pop culture podcast Bang On with fellow Triple J alum Zan Rowe, but her main gig is her afternoon arts and culture show on ABC Radio, which airs across Australia.