Jo Stanley

If Jo Stanley's schoolhood dream had come true, she'd be walking the corridors of the Supreme Court as one of Melbourne's leading lawyers.

As a schoolgirl, her ambition was to live the dramatic life of the characters from her two favourite TV shows of the mid-1980s.

"I loved LA Law because they were all hot and I loved Carson's Law because of the passion of Lorraine Bailey's character," Jo recalls.

Sense clearly prevailed, and she instead chose to study drama and theatre at university, with an eye on becoming an actor.

"I suppose I felt comfortable being in another person's skin," she says.

But a realisation came when she was acting as a dying person in a production half-way through her degree, and the audience kept laughing at her performances. It was then that she realised comedy was her new direction; one which has taken her to the top of Melbourne radio.

Jo had started writing comedy at uni, but her skills were honed in revues and a comedy quartet before she met Jodie J. Hill in Melbourne's comedy scene. The couple performed as a duo and Jo also continued to perform solo, going on to feature in nine Melbourne Comedy Festival shows.

By chance, an executive from Fox FM saw Jodie and Jo perform together at a gig, and gave them a show on Sunday night to test them as a radio duo. By now, Jo was working as an arts event manager at RMIT, the City of Yarra and City of Monash, and continued to work her full-time job while she learned the tricks of radio.

A year later, Jo and Jodie were confident enough to demand more.

"We walked into our boss's office and delivered an ultimatum; that we get a full-time job or we leave," Jo recalls with a smile

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It worked. The Jodie and Jo Show was given the weekday 9am-noon slot for two years until 2003, when Jo moved over to the ensemble version of The Shebang on Triple M, which had a cast of five. Three months later, in November 2003, she joined Matt Tilley in the breakfast slot on Fox. Before long, the show was on top of the ratings and spent all of 2006 as Melbourne's number one FM breakfast show.

Television has also come knocking on Jo's door. When the team behind Channel Ten's The Panel saw Jo's 2003 Melbourne Comedy Festival Show called "Sing-Along Jo Stanley", they invited her to be a regular on the show. Jo's also hosted Break on Ten and appeared on Ten's Thank God You're Here, Nine's Clever and Seven's Sunday Brunch.

Jo met husband Darren when she was at university. A theatre production Jo was involved in was looking for its cast, and Darren applied.

"I suggested to the director that we give Darren a role because we didn't have many men apply, and because he had nice arms," Jo says. "As it turned out, he was terrible."

The married two years later and in 2006 they bought their first house for them and their Tonkinese cats Maggie and Kenny and Labrador dog Scout. It's a house clear of clutter because Jo has a self-confessed anal-retentive personality.

"It's almost an obsessive compulsive thing," she says. "I must have things in order, so everything has to be in line and all the CDs, books and spice racks in my house are alphabeticised."

As listeners to The Matt and Jo Show would know, Jo's a very committed Magpies supporter and is a fourth-generation fan in her family.

She's also a committed to fitness regeime something which started when Jo turned 30 and changed her life. So far, she's run a full marathon (42km) and two half-marathons (23km each).

"For me, running is an analogy for life - you set short-term goals and keep achieving them and before you know it you've achieved something big," Jo says.

In 2006 she started to learn how to DJ and mix records.

Jo's Top 5 Show Moments

Day at the Farm
Living with Matt, Troy, Adam and the team for a week
The Arms Race
Selling my undies
My heart rate test

Inside Jo's Head

I've never ... drunk a cup of coffee.

The last time I got into trouble was ... when I swore on air.

I don't give 'Blue Steel', I give ... Cheeky Monkey

The movie of my life would be called ... “That’s Not What I Meant”

I cook amazing ... Roasts, of any kind.

I can't face ... wind stronger than a baby’s breath

I'm fanatical about ... Collingwood and tolerance, mainly tolerating Collingwood.

I'd love to try ... every Parma made in Melbourne

I'm banned from ... burping out loud.

I can't got to bed without ... kissing my baby.

In the car I ... talk to myself.