The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership's 40th season in 1947. Their home ground is Parramatta Stadium.

It took 30 years for the club to make the Grand Final, which they did in 1976 and 1977, losing on both occasions. However, this period foreshadowed their most successful period in the early 1980s, when they won four premierships and qualified for five Grand Finals in six seasons. This was a golden era for the club and has yielded their only premership titles. The club plays in the National Rugby League, the premier rugby league football competition in Australasia. Parramatta sides are also fielded in lower grades and junior competitions run by the New South Wales Rugby League where they are typically a consistent premiership winning force.

Parramatta ( /ˌpærəˈmætə/) is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney 23 kilometres (14 mi) west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area (LGA) of the City of Parramatta. Part of the suburb is shared with the City of Holroyd LGA.

Parramatta, founded in the same year as Sydney by the British in 1788, is the oldest inland European settlement in Australia and is the economic capital of Greater Western Sydney and the sixth largest central business district in Australia. Since 2000, Parramatta has seen the consolidation of its role as a government centre with the relocation of agencies such as the New South Wales Police Force headquarters and Sydney Water, from the Sydney CBD. Simultaneously, major upgrades have occurred around the railway station with the expansion of Westfield Parramatta, the creation of a new transport interchange, and the ongoing development of the Civic Place local government precinct.

Brett Kenny (born 16 March 1961 in Gerringong, New South Wales) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s. He was a five-eighth for the Australian national team, the New South Wales Blues representative side and the Parramatta Eels. He played in 17 Tests, made 17 State of Origin appearances and won 4 premierships with Parramatta. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

The son of a former Australian baseball representative, Brett Kenny did not turn to rugby league until well into his teenage years after baseball and athletics. Despite a lack of experience, his talent was quickly noticed by Parramatta when playing in the juniors at Guildford and he was graded in 1980. So successful was Kenny in the lower grades that he was partnering established champion Mick Cronin in the centres by the end of that year making seven first grade performances in his rookie season.

A swap with five-eighth Steve Ella in the middle of the 1981 season worked wonders for a team that had struggled during the previous season and a half and under coach Jack Gibson they developed into formidable competitors.

Nathan Frederick Cayless (born 28 March 1978 in Sydney, New South Wales) is a retired New Zealand-Australian professional rugby league footballer, who was a long-time captain the Parramatta Eels of the National Rugby League. His position of choice was prop forward. He is also a former captain of the New Zealand national team, whom he led to World Cup glory against Australia in 2008. He is the older brother of fellow New Zealand international Jason Cayless.

While attending Parramatta Marist High School, Nathan played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1995 and 1996. However, he chose to represent New Zealand at senior level and was part of the Kiwis squad for the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, in which they reached the final. Cayless captained New Zealand to victory in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.

Cayless became one of the New Zealand Kiwis' most-capped players, having appeared on 38 occasions by April 2009 when he retired from international rugby league, stating that he wanted to focus the rest of his football career on the Eels. With the Eels, he holds the record for the most games as captain of any team in the NRL.

Anh Do (born 1977 in Vietnam) is a Vietnamese Australian author, actor and stand-up comedian.

He has appeared on many Australian TV shows such as Thank God You're Here and Good News Week, and was runner-up on Dancing With The Stars in 2007. He studied a combined Business Law degree at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is brother of film director Khoa Do and has acted in several of Khoa's films, including Footy Legends, which he co-wrote and produced.

Do and his family fled to Australia as refugees in 1980. In his 2010 autobiography,The Happiest Refugee, Do tells of how his family survived five days in a leaky fishing boat nine and a half metres long and two metres wide and packed with 40 Vietnamese refugees fleeing across the Indian Ocean. “We were crammed in like sardines,” he said.The Happiest Refugee has won many awards, including the 2011 Australian Book of the Year, Biography of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, as well as the Indie Book of the Year Award 2011, Non-fiction Indie Book of the Year 2011, and it was shortlisted for the 2011 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Community Relations Commission Award.