Casey Donovan is an Uber driver: Where are the other Australian Idol winners now?

FORMER Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan today revealed a surprising new job. So where are her fellow Idol winners?

WAY back in 2004, aspiring singer Casey Donovan took out the second season of Australian Idol, pipping Anthony Callea at the post and landing a record deal in the process.

13-years later, the 28-year-old performer has taken on a new job that might just put her in direct contact with some of the very people who voted for her.

In a new interview with the Daily Telegraph, Donovan revealed she’s picked up work as an Uber driver, taking on the role part-time to supplement her singing and acting commitments.

“I write music about my own experience and other people’s, so being on the road meeting all these people is really inspiring,” Donovan, who works a few Uber shifts per week, told the Daily Telegraph’s Jonathan Moran.

Donovan says her Uber passengers sometimes recognise her. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Singing her heart out on Idol.

“I’ve been recognised a few times,” she continued “I get paired with a lot of women when driving and some of them have been quite excited. I’ve been asked to sing.”

While Donovan hasn’t troubled the ARIA charts since her post-Idol debut album For You was released in 2004, she has released music independently — and carved an impressive stage career.

She recently appeared in an Australian tour of Queen musical We Will Rock You, and will this year appear in a production at Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre. She also recently successfully mounted a Kickstarter campaign, raising $10,000 to write and record a new EP set for release this year.

Donovan also released a tell-all memoir in 2014, shocking fans when she revealed she had been ‘catfished’ by a female friend who posed as a male admirer and entered into a relationship with her — for six years.

But where are the rest of Donovan’s Australian Idol alumni now? While finalists on the show including Em Rusciano, Matt Corby, Jessica Mauboy and Ricki Lee now enjoy successful careers in showbiz, for some winners, the expectations that came with the title of ‘Australian Idol’ were hard to follow up:

2003: Guy Sebastian

Sebastian in his latest music video.

Baby-faced in his first Idol audition.

Much like original American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, Guy Sebastian has been arguably the Aussie franchise’s biggest success: eight top ten studio albums, more than 20 singles hitting the Australian top 20, even a respectable top-five placing at Eurovision as the debut Australian entry in 2015. Last month the current X Factor judge released his latest EP, Part 1, home to the hit single Set In Stone.

2005: Kate DeAraugo

DeAraugo, pictured here during her 2015 court appearance.

Her crowning moment.

DeAraugo scored two hit singles following her win, before joining Idol girl group Young Divas for their brief time together. Music took a back seat as DeAurago’s public weight battle and personal issues instead made headlines: She signed an endorsement deal with Jenny Craig but was forced to withdraw from the partnership due to health problems, then underwent full-body liposuction and appeared as a contestant on 2012 celebrity weight loss program, Excess Baggage.

Her most recent musical release, the Pink-esque single Shut Your Mouth, was released in May 2015. A month later, DeAraugo was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, copping a six-month driving ban after she tested positive to methylamphetamine — or ‘ice’ — during a police stop.

“Unfortunately Kate has been suffering from addiction for quite a long time and right now she has relapsed and it is really unfortunate after all the hard work she has done to get herself back on track,” her manager Dave Wilkins said at the time.

Her most recent social media post came in December 2015: She thanked fans for their support via her Facebook page, saying she was “doing well and feeling much better.”

2006: Damien Leith

Leith last year celebrated a decade since his win.

His winning night, on stage at the Sydney Opera House

While the Irish-born crooner scored just two top 40 singles after his Idol win, he’s carved out a successful ten-year career as an album artist, with 2011’s platinum-selling Roy Orbison tribute album and more recently, 2015’s Songs From Ireland cover collection. He’s penned two fiction novels, One More Time and Remember June, and last year marked a decade since his Idol win with a 30-date national tour. He hits the road again in 2017, playing his Roy Orbison tribute show throughout the country.

20 07: Natalie Gauci

Gauci lookin’ gorge in a recent Instagram post.

With 2007 runner-up turned Triple J fave Matt Corby.

Poor Natalie got perhaps the rawest deal of any Australian Idol winner, only releasing the ‘Winner’s Journey’ rush-job covers collection immediately after her win during her time with Sony. She parted ways with the label before getting a proper shot at an album of original material.

Since then, she’s dabbled in dance music as frontwoman for electro outfit Tune In Tokyo (their 2010 single Dreamer remains a banger), and independently released a jazz album in 2012.

But life post-Idol wasn’t easy: Last year she revealed in an interview with New Idea that she’d battled drug use following her split with her record label.

“I took a lot of drugs and became paranoid,” the London-based singer told the mag.

With a new album Pictures of Mars set for release in 2017, Gauci is performing dates across Australia in the coming weeks.

2008: Wes Carr

Carr in 2016, now treading the boards. Picture: Richard Gosling

Carr with fellow Idol winner Kelly Clarkson in the wake of his win.

Perhaps sensing the Australian Idol connection can be just as much a hindrance as a help, this beardy troubadour released his most recent album, 2013’s Roadtrip Confessions, under the pseudonym Buffalo Tales. That same year, he released a cover of Rihanna’s Diamonds that drew praise from the song’s writer, fellow Aussie Sia.

Like Donovan, he’s found new success in theatre, currently performing in a national touring production of the 60s-era musical Rolling Thunder Vietnam.

2009: Stan Walker

With runner-up Hayley Warner before the finale.

Smouldering in a recent Instagram post.

While Walker’s early Aussie chart success has somewhat cooled in recent years — his singles haven’t troubled our top 20 since 2011 — the New Zealand-born singer has grown into a household name back in his homeland. With two stints as a judge on New Zealand X Factor boosting his profile, he’s released several NZ-only smash hit singles - including 2014’s

Aotearoa, an upbeat tribute to his Maori heritage. Like his one-time duet partner Jessica Mauboy, he’s also made the leap onto the big screen, appearing in several Kiwi films including last year’s critically acclaimed smash Hunt For The Wilderpeople.