Kate McCartney is a writer/director, illustrator, animator and performer.

Her work as a comedy performer and writer has featured in Big Bite, Hamish and Andy and Time Of Our Lives. Kate was a senior writer for Sam Simmons’ Problems, and further writing credits include Adam Hills Tonight, Dirty Laundry Live, Spicks and Specks and ABC3’s Little Lunch and You’re Skitting Me. She has appeared in Network TEN series My Life Is Murder, Offspring and ABC series Outland.

Kate’s writing has been published in Penguin’s Thanks For The Mammaries and Penguin/Random House’s Women of Letters: Between Us.

In 2006, Kate’s animated short The Astronomer was screened nationally and internationally. It was nominated for an Australian Film Industry award in 2006 and won Best 2-D Animation at Animex, 2007.

In 2015, Kate McCartney and writing partner Kate McLennan’s original concept The Katering Show was released on YouTube. To date, it has attracted over 4 million views and 60,000 subscribers. In 2016, the Kates returned with a fresh new season of the hit series premiering on ABC iView.

With Kate McLennan, Kate McCartney was the co-recipient of the 2011 Kit Denton Disfellowship for Bleak. Bleak originally launched in 2014 on YouTube before it was made into a TV pilot for ABC’s Comedy Showroom in 2016.

Kate was the director of ABC hit comedy The Edge Of The Bush — a series created by writer and performer Anne Edmonds. She also directed the Mandy McElhinney, Wayne Blair & Jenna Owen storyline in ABC TV’s series Squinters.

In 2017, Kate teamed up with Kate McLennan again for their new full-length ABC series titled Get Krack!n, where they set their satirical sights on the world of breakfast television. The Kates returned to the ABC with the second season of Get Krack!n in 2019.

In 2021 the Kates launched Slushy, an 8-part audio series for Audible Originals. An ordinary workplace comedy set in the most extraordinary place on earth – a research station in Antarctica.

Most recently, the Kates turned their sharp satirical comedy into an international hit with Deadloch. The Tasmanian-set crime-comedy’s first season (2023) launched in more than 160 countries and won multiple AACTA Awards, including Best Screenplay in Television. The Top End-set second season followed in 2026 to renewed critical praise.