Lexy Hamilton-Smith Travels from QLD
Fee Range: POA
Lexy Hamilton-Smith's Biography
She has worked for all five television networks including SBS. From
writing the social pages for the local newspaper in her first job as a cadet
journalist to hosting nightly current affairs for a major network, Lexy has had
an extensive career.
Lexy is also an experienced Master of Ceremonies, host and facilitator
working for charities including Bonnie Babes, the Australian Lung Foundation
and Blue Care, which she was a patron of for four years. She is also a moving
public speaker having endured her own journey of love and loss through the
passing of her husband Dave, also a well-respected journalist.
She started in journalism after graduating from Flinders University in
Adelaide with a Bachelor of Arts. Her first job in television was at the
Channel Ten newsroom in Adelaide, where she won an award for an exclusive story
on the arrest of “the poisoning granny Emily Perry.”
Lexy moved to Brisbane to work on Ten’s expanded one-hour news format as
police reporter and then to SBS Television in Sydney. She then became one of
the Seven Network’s leading news journalists in Sydney. Her work on the Nyngan
floods led the bulletin which won a Penguin Award in 1990.
Lexy’s husband’s ill-health forced a move to Brisbane. There she
continued to work in the Seven news room eventually reading news and hosting
Today Tonight, where she took on ACA’s Ray Martin in a worthy ratings battle.
Her success in that position led to the prestigious role as the face of
Australia Television, a nightly news beamed into Asia and watched by over 40
million viewers. During that time she hosted the Australia/Hong Kong Chamber of
Commerce Business Awards in Hong Kong and the Business Asia News Magazine
Awards in Sydney.
Lexy eventually moved back to Brisbane where she worked for Channel Nine
on the much-loved Brisbane Extra and later back to Ten as a senior news
reporter and presenter. Lexy covered the death of Croc Hunter Steve Irwin for
the network and won Ten’s 2009 Queensland Journalist of the Year. She has also
worked extensively on a Medical round, her skill as a reporter and ability to
empathise with people enduring hardship winning her the recent Queensland
Mental Health Media Award for a story on suicide prevention. 2013 has seen Lexy
return to the screen on Channel 7's Sunrise programme.
Lexy's inspirational personal story also proves her resilience - from
the shyest kid in the class, battling bulimia and low self esteem to end up
being so successful in television.
Lexy was also a step mother at 24, and later had to care for her
terminally ill husband while still presenting on TV and then, at the same time,
having her home affected by the Queensland Floods. Lexy certainly has alot to
talk about when it comes to overcoming life's challenges.