Tim Harding

Timothy John "Tim" Harding (born 1 February 1978, in Springwood, NSW, Australia) is an Australian entertainer and former cast member of the Australian TV show Hi-5. He played as a puppeteer for Jup Jup in the Puzzles And Patterns Segment, from Series 1 to 9, hosted by Kathleen de Leon Jones (Series 1 - 8) and Sun Pezzimenti (Series 9).

Professional life
Harding grew up in Sydney, Australia, and attended St Andrew's Cathedral School. In 1993, he began a funk band Compos Mentis with his brother Peter, family friend Mike McCarthy and bass player Sam O'Donnell. In 1998, whilst studying social work at university he auditioned for the children's musical group Hi-5. Harding was accepted and became a core member of the group until November 2007 when he left the group after recovering from a broken back and toes from a motorcycle accident at Eastern Creek Raceway earlier in 2007. Whilst Harding was in Hi-5, they won five ARIA Music Awards and three Logie Awards. In 2015, Harding posted on his own channel on YouTube, where it appears he and his daughter singing a few hits of Hi-5 as L.O.V.E. and Some Kind Of Wonderful. Harding worked as a freelance entertainer and musician and sings with the Sydney-based weddings and functions band Soultraders. And now Harding does acoustic shows around the country. Harding is a family man, married to Natasha (nee Humphreys), is a father of Arielle Poppy-Marie (who suffers from epilepsy), and Beatrix Joelle. In 2016, Harding appeared on Today along with Charli Robinson and Lachie Dearing to discuss the auditions in preparation for the reboot of the Hi-5 series on the last day. In 2020, Harding announced on Tanya & Steve on Triple M that there were rumours about a Hi-5 reunion concert.

Trivia

 * Tim was replaced by Stevie Nicholson in November 2007.
 * Tim is the second original member who left the group.
 * Tim left the group because of a motorcycle accident.
 * Tim is the original band member to fill his role, and it has been recast the fewest times of any slot in the band.
 * In the new version of Hi-5 Australia from 2009-2011, Tim Maddren exercised the same functions as the original member of the same name. He also attended in all of the episodes that Harding was part of in Season 13.
 * In addition to Jup Jup in Hi-5, Tim provided the voice of Zip the Bird in Cushion Kids. Zip narrates the program, similar to Tim narrating a sharing story in the Sharing Stories Segment.

Video
Tim Harding talks about ChildSafe