Catherine Deveny

Catherine Deveny
Deveny at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention
Born	1968 (age 48–49) Australia
Medium	Stand-up comedy, television
Genres	Observational comedy, satire, political satire, sarcasm
Subject(s)	Atheism, everyday life, human behavior, religion, politics, pop culture

Catherine Deveny (born 1968) is an Australian comedy writer and stand-up comedian who was a regular columnist for The Age newspaper from 2001 to 2010. As well as comedy venues she has performed on Australian television and radio programs.

Deveny's television work has included:

Deveny has written for events such as the Logie Awards and the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Awards, and co-wrote the 2005 Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards with Russell Crowe.

From 2001 to 2010, Deveny was a regular columnist for The Age newspaper, published in Victoria. In March 2009 she conducted a one-woman strike as a protest against the newspaper after her wages were reduced as part of an organisational restructure. Deveney's column was then removed from the newspaper after the writer/comedian caused controversy with Twitter posts that were in relation to the 2010 Logies awards ceremony.

In a radio interview following her sacking, Deveny claimed that her employers did not understand the nature of new media and how it is used. On 18 March 2009, during an ABC 774 radio interview between Jon Faine and the editor of The Age Paul Ramadge, angry supporters ambushed the show calling for Deveny's return as a regular columnist;

In June 2012, after Ramadge resigned following the announcement of a company restructure, Deveny wrote the following comment on Twitter: "I wish him arse cancer." Deveny has been named in The Age newspaper's "Top 100 Most Influential Melburnians" list.

Deveny is the author of Rank and Smelly (1997), Babies, Bellies and Blundstones (1999), Our New Baby (2005) and The Happiness Show (2012). Deveny's newspaper column writing has been published by Black Inc. in several collections: It's Not My Fault They Print Them (2007) and Say When (2008) and Free To A Good Home (2009).

The 2009 Festival of Dangerous Ideas, held at the Sydney Opera House, featured Deveny in a live debate with Cardinal George Pell, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. In April of the same year, Deveny returned to stand-up comedy in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with the show Mother of The Year.