Ewen Gilmour

Ewen Gilmour – ‘Westie’ - is New Zealand’s most unusual “ Cultural Ambassador”.

1997 saw Ewen being presented with the inaugural Billy T Award for comedy, the same year Waitakere City titled Ewen as ‘Cultural Ambassador’, an honour presented by the city’s Mayor Bob Harvey, in a special ceremony at a car wreaker’s yard where Ewen was once employed.

As well as touring all over New Zealand, Ewen has performed internationally on a regular basis for the last eight years, from the prestigious Montreal Just For Laughs, to Sydney, Ireland, Paris, Holland, Melbourne, Brussels and Entertaining the New Zealand troops in East Timor.

Ewen left West Auckland 5 years ago, when his breeding pair of painted apple moths escaped, leaving him devastated… worse was to come, upon his return from England everybody in West Auckland had pairs of painted apple moths... they were a collectors item when Ewen first had them, so this left him feeling sad when he should have been happy, having successfully represented NZ during the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.

Ewen represented NZ in drug testing. He trained most days and won the gold. It’s just that he can’t remember where he’s left it.

In 2003 we watched as Ewen was voted off Celebrity Treasure Island, because of a personal hygiene problem. Later that year also saw Ewen head to Peru as part of the second series of Intrepid Journeys, but it wasn’t long before the Peruvian people agreed with the Celebrities and also sent Ewen home.

Ewen has been involved with Varity since 1996, and has been a Variety ambassador since 2004. He often joins the Variety Bash, helping to raise money for under privileged children, so they don’t grow-up to be like Ewen. He does a lot of Charity work, which is weird, when we see him as someone who should be doing a lot of Community work.

Ewen has been giving back to the community throughout his career, but not more so than in his role as a Waitakere City Councillor 2003-2006.

Only Ewen Gilmour could find a way of riding his Triumph motorbike onto a show like the 2005 NZ series of world popular Dancing with the Stars. His triumph also featured on Marcus Lush's show Off the Rails. Touring with rock bands has honed Ewen’s Rock ‘n’ roll comedy style. Maybe it was the influence of the rock 'n' roll boys in The Feelers that encouraged Ewen to get naked on the last gig of their summer tour in 2006.

More recently Ewen fronted the German episode of TVNZ's Here To Stay. This show traces various groups of immigrants to New Zealand. Why were we not surprised to find out that Ewen is of Bohemian descent, and enjoys a good German beer?

Ewen recently had a small part in Underworld 3 on the council of Vampires. It wasn't such a big step after having been on Waitakere City Council. Ewen joined team ORIX for the NZV8 series 2008. He has recently finished a successful Comedy Festival show in Wellington, Yeeha!

As New Zealanders we love to laugh at ourselves, and one New Zealander we love to laugh at is EWEN. The V8 of New Zealand comedy, he is quick off the mark and his performances race from laugh to laugh.