| Jesse Mulligan | |
| Show: | The Project |
| Station: | Three |
| Country: | New Zealand |
| Prevshow: | |
Jesse Robert Turi Mulligan is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster and writer. From 2015 he has hosted Afternoons on RNZ National. He was a co-host for The Project on Three from 2017 to 2023. He is also the Dining out editor at the Viva lifestyle magazine published by NZME.
While studying for a law degree from Waikato University, Mulligan hosted radio and television programmes broadcast by the Waikato Student Union. Thereafter he worked as a commercial radio host in Wellington and Auckland, as a comedian, and in public relations and corporate communications.[1] [2]
Mulligan was a writer and then regular panellist on Three's comedy gameshow 7 Days.[3] In 2013, he started as one of the three hosts on TVNZ 1's new current affairs show, Seven Sharp. He left the show on 17 April 2014, after his co-hosts Ali Mau and Greg Boyed left at the end of 2013 and were replaced by Toni Street and Mike Hosking, as part of refreshing the show.[4] In 2014 and 2015, he hosted comedy show Best Bits.[5]
He succeeded Simon Mercep as the host of Afternoons on RNZ National in July 2015.[6] A weekly feature of Afternoons during Mulligan's tenure has been Critter of the Week with Forest & Bird chief executive and former Department of Conservation threatened species ambassador Nicola Toki.[7]
In 2017, Mulligan started co-hosting Three's new current affairs show, The Project, and continued in that role until the show was cancelled at the end of 2023.[8]
he is Dining out editor at Viva magazine[9] and was previously a food writer for Metro magazine.
Mulligan is the son of Nick Mulligan, who was the Values Party candidate in Hamilton East at the 1975 general election.[10] Jesse Mulligan is married to psychologist Victoria Dawson-Wheeler and has four children.[11]