Humans of
Chello.

Not a morning person. But more of a person post-coffee. This describes Christina, but somehow it speaks for us all. After studying design and photography at uni Christina realised she could use both sides of her brain in advertising — and immediately enrolled in a masters. But she has useless talents too. She names reciting the alphabet in Italian and in sign language as talents that will not get her far in life.

Terrified of needles, she’s tried hypnosis to erase the fear — and now she doesn’t pass out when she’s getting jabbed in the arm. She still hates needles though. She is, however, a lover of gin, bad dad jokes and quoting a wide range of movies and television shows. At least after a coffee she is.

Ben is a born and bred Melburnian who doesn’t always wear black. It’s something we’re trying to get our head around, but these people do exist. If there’s one thing Ben prides himself on, it’s being a Master Attempter®. He’s currently attempting surfing, golf, and ‘smoothing out’ his woodworking skills. He’s also finishing his Masters in International Relations, where he hopes to surpass the ‘attempting’ level in favour of the ‘Masters of Completion’ level.

Spelt ‘Drou,’ pronounced ‘Drew,’ short for ‘Androulla,’ baptised as ‘Andrianna.’ Drou’s topsy-turvy naming conventions foreshadowed a lifetime of zany misadventures with equally far-reaching, confusing consequences. At the age of 8 or 9, she experienced a catastrophic food-poisoning incident courtesy of what she reasonably assumed to be a benign Filet-O-Fish.

As a result, she now suffers from an acute tomato sauce phobia and would prefer it if this vulnerable information is not circulated to her friends and co-workers or indeed via an extremely public work bio. However, this early brush with certain death has clearly imbued her with a fearless spirit: Drou has bungee jumped in Zimbabwe, sky-dived in South Africa, hiked for three weeks in the Himalayas and once sailed a hand-built wooden raft down the Amazon for a week in Bolivia.

Firstly, we know you’re all thinking it, so we’ll address it up front. No, Traci Chapman does not have a fast car. But what she doesn’t have in wheels, she makes up on the basketball court with her very fast legs. Traci is an avid (albeit lapsed) basketball player, kitchen-knife aficionado and holiday-maker, having travelled and lived all over the world from Vancouver to Thailand. Digging deeper, we found Traci has also been to Ireland, where, unlike Mark, she has landed twice, but never left the airport. We suspect she was there to catch a very fast plane.

HEY STELLA! Feel free to try, but you’ve gotta give it some welly… them be the rules, or so she says. Outside of navigating 50s movie references being shouted at her, Stella would rather be stuck in the 60s as a trailblazing country music singer. But she makes do riding out the 2020s with her ever dependable Tenterfield Terrier, Bean, and her equally loved, if somewhat less dependable Sydney Swans. But every loss has a silver lining when you can head home and find solace in whipping up a three-hour long Ottolenghi recipe. Making Bean, (full of ‘em) one lucky laddie.

Lucy is from a big family and a small town. But if you were alive in Australia in the early naughts, you’ll know of this town… Lucy is from the “very exotic” Shropshire. She originally came to Australia for a six month holiday but that was six years ago and she hasn’t made plans to leave. She’s worked in waste management, transport and property but after three and a half years in an agency knew that this was the right industry for her. Lucy is most annoyed by slow walkers and loves any meal she doesn’t have to cook. Or that comes with a wine. Better make it both.

Originally on track to study pharmacy, somewhere along the way Linh fell into finance and never turned back. She’s a busy aunt to six (at the time of writing) very young nieces and nephews, so you can imagine the pressure of trying to establish herself as the cool aunt when Christmas shopping. But to truly claim this title, Linh will have to eventually teach them karate since she has a brown belt. A lover of travel and adventure, she’s spent six months travelling Europe and has briefly lived in a tribal village in the northern jungles of Thailand. Her dream is to swim in the Red Sea.