Ella Hooper

Ella Keighery Hooper (born 30 January 1983, Violet Town, Victoria) is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter. Hooper is the lead singer of Killing Heidi, which she has fronted, with her older brother Jesse Hooper, since its formation in 1996 (at the age of 13). Their biggest hits are "Mascara" (#1, 30 January 2000, Australian charts), "Live Without It" (#5, 23 April 2000) and "Weir" (#6, 19 December 1999). Killing Heidi have been on hiatus since 2006, Ella and Jesse have performed small scale venues as an acoustic band, The Verses. Born in Violet Town, Victoria to Helen Keighery and Jeremy Hooper. Hooper grew up in the small rural township (950 people) 175 km north of Melbourne. After finishing Violet Town Primary School, Hooper travelled 27 km by bus to Benalla High School (called Benalla College from 1994) until Year 11. Her parents worked as English and drama teachers, and encouraged Hooper to develop her songwriting skills while Jesse became a guitarist very early on. The Hooper siblings wrote and performed songs for a 1996 Triple J competition and won with "Kettle". Hooper moved to Melbourne after Killing Heidi were signed to a recording deal.