What's It Like to Write for the Queen of Aus Twitter? We Asked Chris Leben, Lee Lin Chin's "Manservant"

Lee Lin Chin has simultaneously captivated hearts and inspired fear in her network competition thanks to her fierce social presence.

But she wasn't always known as the undisputed queen of Australian Twitter.

There once was a time when Lee Lin Chin was mostly known for newsreading at SBS, with the occasional nod at her eccentric outfits breaking through the realm of newsreading solemnity.

It was a time when she wasn't known for feisty comebacks at Pauline Hanson and her braggadocio.

It was a time when the only hint of her man-loving ways was when she was accidentally caught checking out a male reporter during a cross to an incident in Afghanistan.

Enter: Chris Leben and SBS' The Feed.

In 2014, Lee Lin Chin was recognised as being underutilised at SBS.

Leben, a writer on The Feed until September last year, was then tasked with writing up some sketches for Lee Lin (whom he hadn't yet met). So, he went around SBS to ask people about her.

"The first thing that we wrote into [her first sketch] was that she was a massive sex pest," Chris admits to Student Edge, ahead of his talk at TEDxYouth on Wednesday, September 6.

But after asking people what she was really into, he was able to round out her character online, with a focus on her passions: "Fashion, beer and pursuing men."

While her on-screen persona does seem to sound eerily similar to her real-life persona, Chris assures us that this is a definite exaggeration. "She's not as big of a creep," Chris laughs. 

One thing I find surprising is that her love for beer is hardly overstated. Chris explains Lee Lin likes to go for long day-time beer-drinking sessions which she calls "program meetings". These need to be done during the day because, "night-time is reading".

"She hates anything other than beer," Chris says. "Her favourite beer is Moretti."

Despite Lee Lin not owning a phone and barely understanding what Twitter is, Chris assures me that he is not her ghost-writer and that her social media presence is a collaborative effort.

"We'll workshop some Tweets and write them together," Chris says. "She asks me how many re-tweets we got and how many likes."

Chris explains that just the other day they were doing a voice-over recording near Channel Seven in Sydney. Lee Lin asked Chris to take a photo of her in front of the Channel Seven logo and post that she's taking a new job. Chris says Lee Lin wanted to watch everyone freak out thinking she'd left SBS.

Now, that's a cheeky prank if I've ever heard one.

While Chris might not be a household name like Lee Lin, he's played a big part in fortifying her place as the quirkiest personality on Australian television. (Sorry Karl, you're a very distant second.)

And after forming a new production company with her and another writer, it doesn't seem like this collaboration will end anytime soon.

You can catch Chris and Lee Lin at this year's TEDxYouth on Wednesday, September 6, 2017. Purchase your tickets here.

Photo: Amelia Dowd