OLIVER TWIST
Rwandan-born Aussie Oliver Twist is a comic, playwright and actor who makes his own opportunities after a childhood watching his parents do the same.
After fleeing the Rwandan civil war at the age of four, Oliver spent his childhood in Malawi, first in a refugee camp, and later in the city where his mother and father started a small convenience store.
After acceptance into the Australian government’s refugee intake, the family arrived in Ipswich in 2014 to begin a new life.
Then eighteen, Oliver already knew he was funny, and now he was in a country where comedy clubs and open mic sessions allowed him to prove it. He started taking the stage in Queensland, becoming a regular at the Sit Down Comedy Club in Brisbane and Based Comedy on the Gold Coast.
In 2017 he entered the RAW Comedy competition, and made it to the national finals in Melbourne. That was the year he decided to make the move to Sydney, and to begin telling stories in a new way. Within a week of his arrival he had written the one-man play Jali (meaning historian or storyteller), telling the tale of his family’s journey.
“I wanted to elevate the storytelling form. There are a lot of stories that I share in Jali that wouldn’t translate in a comedy club where people are drinking beer,” Oliver says.
After going through development with the Griffin Theatre Company, Jali premiered in early 2021 to rave reviews and an entirely sold out season.
“Twist is a star,” declared the Sydney Morning Herald in a four star review. “This is why we came back to the theatre.”
“Twist is a storyteller of natural grace, completely at ease with his place in the story and where it’s going,” writes Audrey Journal.
And the Sydney Arts Guide called Jali “a wonderful accomplishment both in terms of writing and acting”
As a comic, Twist has been chosen as support for the likes of Kevin Hart, Wil Anderson, Tiffany Haddish and Becky Lucas. He’s a regular at the Sydney Comedy Store and has performed on the Sydney Comedy Festival Gala and on the festival’s roadshow.