Tom Cardy (born 12 June 1994) is an Australian comedian, musician, songwriter, and actor. He became known in Australia for his "Song Sequels" segments on the radio station Triple J in 2020, and achieved more international recognition when he began posting comedy songs and videos on TikTok and YouTube. He has composed music for the comedy series The Feed and The Moth Effect. His debut EP, Artificial Intelligence (2021), peaked at No. 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart. He was shortlisted for the AACTA Award for Favourite Digital Content Creator and the Craft Award for Writing at the Streamy Awards.
Cardy was born in Sydney on 12 June 1994. He has two older sisters: Alex, a cinematographer, and Stephanie, a doctor. He and his sisters took piano and drum lessons during childhood at the behest of their parents, and he was the only one who chose to continue when their parents asked them if they wanted to stop. He studied music and psychology at the University of Sydney, then studied technical and further education to sharpen his music production skills.
While studying psychology and music, Cardy wrote and performed for several university arts revues in addition to his own sold-out comedy festival shows. Around this time, he also played drums for Sydney band the Lulu Raes. He also began regularly appearing on the Australian Dungeons & Dragons podcast "Dragon Friends", where he both participated as a player and provided musical accompaniment. In September 2020, he was featured on fellow musical comedian Bridie Connell's single "Armageddon (It On)". That year, he also began working with the radio station Triple J on its now-popular "Song Sequels" segments, in which he produces parodies of famous songs.
Cardy released his debut single, "Mixed Messages", on 30 July 2021. A week later, he released his debut EP, Artificial Intelligence. On 12 August, he was a guest on Triple J's drivetime program Hobba & Hing, where he discussed how the EP came to be made. Artificial Intelligence debuted at No. 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart. On 9 September, he released the single "Fruit Salad". On 20 October, he was nominated for the Craft Award for Writing at the 11th Streamy Awards. On 3 November, he was shortlisted for the audience-voted Favourite Digital Content Creator Award at the 11th AACTA Awards, but did not make it through to the list of five finalists. On 21 November, he released the Christmas-themed single "Not Quite Almost Christmas Time".
On 23 January 2022, Cardy had two songs voted into Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2021 when "H.Y.C.Y.BH" and "Mixed Messages" were respectively ranked at No. 17 and No. 11. On 9 February, he was cast alongside musician Montaigne in the SBS musical comedy Time to Buy. Montaigne also featured on his song "Red Flags". On 17 February, he was a guest on Hobba & Hing, where he debuted a song about host Lewis Hobba called "Weird Guy", which was recorded as a prank during Hobba's COVID-induced absence. The song additionally features Montaigne. On 21 February, he was featured in an interview published by Rolling Stone Australia. In the interview, he discussed his sudden popularity on TikTok and explained that his success mostly comes from creating a number of extremely short songs designed to be shared online, some of which get expanded into full-length songs. On 6 August, he uploaded the video for a new song titled "Hey, I Don't Work Here" and announced that his debut studio album would be released in the near future. The album, titled Big Dumb Idiot, was released on 9 December 2022.
Cardy's style of musical comedy often incorporates elements of awkward humour, observational humour, and surreal humour.
