Catherine Deveny is a writer, comedian, author of ten books, and speaker.

She is well known for her work as a columnist with The Age newspaper, as a Melbourne International Comedy Festival favourite,  an ABC regular and the founder and creator of Gunnas Writing Masterclass.  Deveny published over 1000 columns with The Age newspaper, has appeared on ABC’s QandA six times and participated in the Emmy award winning Go Back To Where You Came From on SBS television with Angry Anderson and Peter Reith.

Deveny was the Reason candidate for the lower house in the 2018 Victorian state election.

She is the mastermind behind Australia’s most popular and successful writing classes Gunnas Writing Masterclass, (9000 people since 2014 can’t be wrong).  The brand has expanded to online monthly meetups, weekend retreats, workshops, and more recently Gunnas International, a 10 day writers retreat in Paris and Provence for writers and people who love them. 

It’s Not My Fault They Print Them (2007), Say When (2008), Free To A Good Home (2009), The Happiness Show (2012),  Use Your Words ( 2016),  Mental, co written with psychiatrist Dr. Steve Ellen,  (2018) and True North: A Memoir (2022) are all published by Black Inc. Books. She has contributed to numerous compilations including  Destroying The Joint, Stamping Ground, Mothermorphois, From The Outer. You’ll find her writing in places like Guardian, The Stick, Paper Sea Quarterly, Meanjin and ABC Online, The Drum among other publications. 

She’s in constant demand as corporate speaker, conference emcee, after dinner entertainment, panel member, guest lecturer and to deliver key note addresses. She has also worked with organisations such as Law Institute of Victoria, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Attorney General’s Department, Australian Law Reform Commission, The Shannon Company, Beyond Blue, Melbourne University’s Centre For Ideas And Writing and dozens of local progressive businesses and artists.

Deveny’s early television work included Network Seven’s Tonight Live with Steve Vizard, Full Frontal, ABC TV’s Good News Week, BackBerner, Network 10’s Rove Live, The Wedge and skitHOUSE and The Project. She has performed regularly on radio and television over the last almost three decades and was a popular fill in broadcaster on 774 ABC Melbourne.

Deveny has written for the Logie Awards, the Aria Music Awards and co-wrote the 2005 AFI Awards with Russell Crow. She famously took on Roman Catholic Cardinal George Pell at the Sydney Opera House in the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Deveny is widely considered one of the most gifted, versatile and prolific writers in Australia. Her voice ranges from polemic to compassionate, stand up to sermon, joke writer to speech writer and from cultural terrorist to cultural therapist. She has performed everywhere from Sydney Opera House to Splendour In The Grass.

Catherine Deveny has been named in the Top 100 Most Influential Melburnians. She is an atheist and dyslexic. She was a member of the Federal Government’s working part on dyslexia. Her extensive charity and community work includes , Asylum Seeker’s Resource Centre, homeless women and Broken Rites. She is a proud ambassador for Dying With Dignity Victoria, 2010 International Day of People with Disability, a No To Homophobia Community Champion and one of the founding members of Friends of Public Housing. A self appointed commuter cyclist ambassador Deveny is the creator and curator of Pushy Women, an event where high profile women celebrate their cycling in their life.

Deveny opened the The 2010 Global Atheist Convention Melbourne, Australia with Richard Dawkins, Peter Singer, Philip Adams, Dan Barker and Sam Harris. Her Melbourne International Comedy Festival one woman show God Is Bullshit; That’s The Good News sold out in 2010 and 2011. She returned as a headline performer for the 2012 Global Atheist Convention Gala Dinner.

She is the presenter, writer and producer of the short film Atheist Alphabet answering the most frequently asked questions about atheism.

In 2014 one of her texts  was used in the HSC exam. Ironically, Deveny almost failed HSC English receiving a score of 51%.

She considers The Love Party her greatest artwork and political statement.

Dev was raised in Reservoir and has been living in The People’s Republic Of Moreland since 1995.  Her home is The Atheist Kibbutz, a colony of free thinkers, risk takers and pleasure seekers.  It is a benevolent feminist dictatorship and she is the Supreme Being.

She is a mental health nerd, professional MILF and ball of feelings.