Film criticism In 2002, Fennell was a winner of the first
AFI Young Film Critics Competition. He then became the film critic and reporter for Sydney radio station
FBi Radio from 2003–2006. During this period Fennell was selected as one of four presenters of SBS's
The Movie Show in mid-2004. Fennell covered cinema across the
ABC Radio Network including
ABC Local Radio and the national youth broadcaster
Triple J. He presented the weekly movie segment on the
Network Ten morning program
The Circle from 2010 until it was axed in August 2012. Fennell also regularly produced digital projects exploring cinema culture including
Bollywood For Beginners: a series for
SBS Television about the history of
Bollywood. He also co-produced a web series about
movie trailers,
Coming Sooner, with Nick Hayden and Nicholas McDougall. Fennell has written two books,
That Movie Book and
Planet According to Movies both published by
HarperCollins.
Hungry Beast Fennell presented and reported on
Hungry Beast, aired on
ABC1. He primarily covered
digital media, popular culture, gaming and technology. Fennell was one of nine members of the team to be selected by Denton to develop online content for
Zapruder's Other Films. Prior to
Hungry Beast Fennell had worked with another of the presenters,
Dan Ilic, developing a YouTube parody of the
Freeview launch as part of their live comedy show
Massage My Medium at the 2009
Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Technology journalism Fennell hosts the ABC's technology radio program
Download This Show which examines the latest developments in social media, consumer electronics, digital politics, hacktivism and online privacy. The program airs on
Radio National, ABC Local Radio Digital and throughout Asia Pacific on
Radio Australia. In 2012,
iTunes Australia named
Download This Show the best new podcast, and it has won Best Audio Program at the Australian IT Journalism Awards ("The Lizzies") many times. It won Best Outlet in the 2023 Lizzies. Fennell has also regularly produced reports on technology for programs on
ABC News 24 including
News Exchange (ended),
The Drum,
Weekend Breakfast and the
Technology Quarter (ended).
The Feed Marc Fennell anchored the SBS current affairs program
The Feed from 2013 to its conclusion in 2022. In addition to his main role co-hosting, Fennell's prerecorded segments became a feature of the show, most notably his interviews with film and television stars. In 2020, Fennell won a
Walkley Award for documenting the theft of museum specimens.
India Now Fennell became an inaugural co-host of the weekly ABC television show
India Now on 30 May 2022. The show, described as "an exciting, rich and entertaining half hour of news, culture and politics from India and the subcontinent" is made by the creators of
Planet America and
China Tonight. The show is aimed at an Australian audience and it is hosted by Australians with Indian heritage. A second season began in April 2023.
Podcasts In 2019, Fennell created
It Burns, a podcast series covering the global
race to grow the hottest pepper. In 2020 he produced
Nut Jobs investigating $10 million worth of nuts stolen from California. Fennell also created the ABC and
CBC podcast series
Stuff The British Stole which has since spawned a television series airing in Australia and Canada. In 2025, he started a new podcast highlighting interesting parts of history called
No One Saw It Coming.
Other television work In 2021, Fennell hosted the Australian version of
The School That Tried to End Racism for the ABC. That year, Fennell also began hosting the
Australian version of
Mastermind, replacing
Jennifer Byrne. In December 2021, Fennell presented
Framed a four-part SBS documentary into the theft of Picasso's painting
The Weeping Woman. In 2023, he presented
The Kingdom, a feature-length SBS documentary which premiered on 11 June 2023 and which investigated his former
Pentecostal religion, in particular the successes and controversies of the
Hillsong Church and the rise in new
megachurches in Australia. Later that year, he presented his 3-part investigation
The Mission: The Strangest Art Heist You Never Heard Of about art works stolen in 1986 from the
New Norcia Monastery in regional Western Australia. In 2025 he appeared as a contestant on ''Claire Hooper's House of Games
. Fennell hosted Tell Me What You Really Think'', a four-part series which premiered on SBS in October 2025. In the series, Fennell and guests discuss sensitive topics at a dinner party. == Personal life ==