tom nash
It’s one thing to survive a life-threatening illness, it’s another to thrive thereafter. Tom nails both; entertaining audiences around the world as a Host, DJ, Speaker and badass quadruple amputee like it’s nobody’s business. Part renaissance man, part refined metal, Tom has seduced audiences from TED to SXSW with his dark sense of humour, sharp observations and irreverent charm.
At just nineteen years of age, Tom contracted a life-threatening disease which led to the loss of both his arms and legs. He spent over eighteen months in hospital, surviving a coma, being on life support and having to re-learn to walk using prosthetics. Confronting death at an early age gave him a unique perspective — one that continues to shape the way he approaches many aspects of life.
“Everybody has hurdles, and everybody has some kind of disability, whether it be visible or invisible, external or internal, physical, mental, or emotional. The adversity is what helps build our character.”
Tom exemplifies the anti-victim, refusing to be easily defined or curtailed. He is the modern-day iconoclast we didn’t know we needed, until now.
After his recovery, Tom started a successful music entertainment brand and became “DJ Hookie”. He would grace the stages of the world’s biggest nightclubs and music festivals while managing one of the most successful and longest-running club nights in Australia.
Tom’s lifelong appreciation for food was ignited while working in restaurants as a student, surrounded by top chefs who shared their culinary skills. Cooking became a way of expressing himself—an act of creativity, thoughtfulness, and connection. Instead of bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party, Tom would show up with a dish, carefully crafted with time and intention.
“In a way, food became my love language.”
Tom has an appetite for disruptive ideas, philosophical minds, and provocative conversations— preferably accompanied by a generous pour of Bordeaux. He approaches life with raw curiosity, unshakable optimism, and a tenacity for troubleshooting, applying lateral thinking to master almost everything in his way. Failure has never been Tom’s favourite F-word.
His fondness for food and fascination with human nature collided when he started asking the compelling ice-breaker: “What would you like as your last meal?” That question became the foundation of a bold new video series.
Today, Tom spends his days traveling the globe, posing that question to some of the world’s most distinguished thinkers before inviting them over for that very meal.