Hi 5 - fun for kids

Hi-5 is a famous children's pop music group as well as a TV show that is popular mainly among children between the ages 2 to 8. Through music, movements and laughter Hi 5 offers a world of learning. Hi-5 an Australian children's television program, was first shown on the Nine Network in 1999. Child-development experts work with writers on every script and song. Each show is built around a simple theme like colors, music, animals, or numbers. This musical band was formed in 1998 which is associated with the children's television series of the same name.

Television producer Helena Harris, creator of Bananas in Pajamas, created "Hi-5" in 1998 when her two children outgrew Bananas. Along with her co-producer Posie Graeme-Evans she decided to create new show focusing at 2-8 year-olds, including educational trends as fun and games, and would feature music and movement to attract children's attention.

The first program was broadcasted in January 1999. Since then, the group has won five ARIA awards for "Best Children's Album" (in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004). They won three consecutive Australian Logie Awards (the Australian awards for television performance and production recognition) for "Most Outstanding Children's Preschool Program" in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Cast Members:

• Casey Burgess: Casey had a passion to perform from the very childhood. She was trained at the famous Brent Street studios in dance, jazz, tap. At the age of 11 she was in production of ‘Annie the musical'. Her roles in famous series were ‘home and away', ‘tripping over' and many more. Casey's voiceover work includes the films ‘Temptation', ‘My Brother Jack' and so on.
• Fely Irvine: Fely received training at the Australian college of entertainment in drama, singing, tap, jazz and ballet and passed with distinction. She graduated with honours at the LA. Prior to New York, Fely toured Australia with Cameron Mackintosh's ‘Miss Saigon' under director Laurence Connor and starred as Jasmine in ‘Triple Treat's Aladdin Pantomime under Chris Farnham.
• Lauren Brant: Lauren is a born entertainer and has been training in the arts since she was three. Now she is an accomplished dancer, singer, actor and model. Lauren was awarded trophies for ‘The most promising performance' and ‘Best Choreographer' in her school. She has done lots of film and television like ‘H2O', ‘The Strip', ‘Mortified' and so on.
• Stevie Nicholson: Stevie was trained at the national institute of dramatic arts - India. He worked with a variety of Australian's top directors, Choreographers, and music theatre experts under the lead of Avigail Herman.

• Tim Maddren: Tim is from a musical family and was encouraged from the very childhood to achieve his passion of performance and entertainment. At the age of nine he gave his first major performance when he played the role of Gavroche in a production of ‘Les Miserables'. Tim also played a guest role on the hit tween television series ‘Blue water High'.

In the musical band there are some major puppets who are the center of attraction.

Jup Jup: This is a cute, funny little creature that lives in the wall.  He loves to be the part of Hi 5 because he gets to play lots of tricks on the unsuspecting Fely. Despite of his limited vocabulary Jup Jup manages to express clearly.

ChatterBox: Chatterbox is known as Chats to her friends. She is cheeky, positive, determined and never short of an opinion on anything. Chat lives in a wildly funky box and it's her favorite place in the world. Like Casey, Chats loves music and always come up with new interesting songs.  

The band tours annually and visits several countries in which they are popular. These include Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. There have been seven special Christmas Eve concerts, in which the cast sang at Carols by Candlelight. These concerts have been held annually since 2000. Hi-5 has produced a number of CDs, at least five of which have gone platinum in Australia.