Rick Kalowski (born 9 May 1972) is an Australian television and film writer/producer, best known for his work on the high-rating but controversial ABC1 sitcom At Home with Julia . [1] Before becoming a writer, Kalowski spent several years working as a lawyer, including clerking for Justice Mary Gaudron at the High Court of Australia.
Kalowski's first screenplay (written with Andrew Jones) was the political satire The Honourable Wally Norman (2003), directed by Ted Emery ( Kath & Kim ), produced by Emile Sherman ( The King's Speech ), and starring Shaun Micallef, Kevin Harrington and H.G. Nelson. [2] The film was opening night selection at the 50th Sydney Film Festival in 2003 and earned Kevin Harrington an Australian Film Institute Awards nomination for Best Actor.
Kalowski's other television credits include head writer and co-creator of the sketch comedy television series Big Bite, a 2003 nominee for Best Comedy Series at the Australian Film Institute Awards starring Chris Lilley and Andrew O'Keefe; and head writer of the Nine Network late-night sketch comedy series Comedy Inc - The Late Shift between 2004 and 2006, nominated for 7 Australian Film Institute Awards including two for Best Comedy Series, the 2006 Logie Award for Most Outstanding Comedy Program, and the 2006 Rose D'Or (Golden Rose of Montreaux) Award for Best International Comedy Series. Kalowski was also co-creator (with David McDonald), head writer, producer of the sketch comedy television series Double Take (2009), noted for its Julia Gillard "Nine to Nine" song parody video that predicted Gillard replacing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and which became a highly popular viral internet item when that political event later occurred in August 2010 [3]
Kalowski has also developed projects in the United States [4] and the United Kingdom. He won the 2006 AWGIE (Australian Writers' Guild Award) for Best Documentary Script,. [5]
In late 2010, Kalowski was appointed Creative Director - Scripted & Light Entertainment at Quail Television, a Sydney-based production company. [6] His first commission in that role was co-creator/co-writer/executive producer of the sitcom At Home with Julia , starring fellow co-creators/co-writers Amanda Bishop and Phil Lloyd, which began airing on ABC1 on 7 September 2011.
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress, comedian, and producer. She is known for her work in the comedy television series Saturday Night Live (1982–1985), Seinfeld (1989–1998), The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006–2010), and Veep (2012–2019). She is one of the most award-winning actresses in American television history, having received more Primetime Emmy Awards and more Screen Actors Guild Awards than any other performer, tying Cloris Leachman for the most acting wins.
Big Bite was an Australian sketch comedy television series which ran on the Seven Network from 8 May 2003 to 4 March 2004 in a prime time timeslot on Thursdays. Since the end of the series, episodes have been repeated on the Foxtel cable channel, The Comedy Channel and 7Two.
Comedy Inc. was an Australian sketch comedy television series, which ran on the Nine Network from 19 February 2003 to 26 December 2007. The series was produced by Crackerjack Productions. It first premiered in February 2003 in the new wave of Australian sketch comedy shows being launched across the free-to-air channels along with Big Bite and skitHOUSE. Since the end of the series episodes have been repeated on the Foxtel cable channel, The Comedy Channel and during 2009, reruns were shown on Nine HD before the channel's closure.
Shaun Patrick Micallef is an Australian comedian, actor, writer and television presenter. He is currently the host of the satirical news comedy series Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell on the ABC. He also hosted the game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation on Channel 10.
Robert Darren Popper is a British comedy producer, writer, actor, and author, best known as co-creator of the mock BBC documentary Look Around You, and creator of Channel 4's sitcom Friday Night Dinner. He also wrote the books The Timewaster Letters, Return of The Timewaster Letters and The Timewaster Diaries under the pseudonym Robin Cooper.
Kevin Harrington is an Australian stage, television and film actor and comedian who is perhaps best known for his roles as Kevin Findlay on the Australian drama SeaChange in the 1990s and as David Bishop on the soap opera Neighbours.
Paul McCarthy is an Australian comedy actor. He is best known for sketch comedy television series Comedy Inc.
William Van Duzer Lawrence IV is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. He is the creator of the series Scrubs and co-creator of shows including Cougar Town, Spin City, Ground Floor, Ted Lasso, and the short-lived animated series Clone High, in which he also voiced the leader of the shadowy figures. He has written for many other shows, including The Nanny and Boy Meets World.
Daniel James Harmon is an American writer, producer, and actor. He is best known as the creator and producer of the NBC/Yahoo! Screen sitcom Community (2009–2015), creator and host of the comedy podcast Harmontown (2012–2019), co-creator of the Adult Swim animated sitcom Rick and Morty (2013–present) and its subsequent franchise along with Justin Roiland, and co-founder of the alternative television network and website Channel 101 along with Rob Schrab.
Adam Zwar is an Australian actor, voice artist, and writer. He is best known for co-creating the Australian comedy series Squinters, Lowdown, Wilfred and creating the critically acclaimed Channel 10 comedy Mr. Black as well as the popular factual series Agony Aunts, Agony Uncles, The Agony of Life, The Agony of Modern Manners and Agony. Zwar also presented and produced seminal cricket documentaries Underarm: The Ball That Changed Cricket and Bodyline: The Ultimate Test which took a forensic look at the infamous 1931-32 Ashes series between Australia and England.
Gregory Bevan Haddrick is an Australian-born Logie Award winning screenwriter and film and television producer. Over the last decade he has won six AWGIE Awards as a writer, two AFI Awards as a producer, and an International Emmy Award nomination as a writer and producer. In 2012, The Australian reported that: "If you've watched an Australian television drama in the past year, there's a one in two chance it was written by Greg Haddrick."
Lowdown is an Australian television comedy series set in the world of celebrity journalism. Created by Amanda Brotchie and Adam Zwar, it stars Zwar, Paul Denny, Beth Buchanan, Dailan Evans, Kim Gyngell and is narrated by Geoffrey Rush. The ABC series premiered on 21 April 2010 and is produced by Nicole Minchin and directed by Amanda Brotchie.
Amanda Brotchie, born in Melbourne, Victoria), is an Australian director known for Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018), Mr Black (2019), Girlboss (2017), and Lowdown (2010-2012). She is also a writer, producer and linguist.
Phil Lloyd is an Australian actor and scriptwriter and partner in the production company Jungleboys. He is best known for his acting role as Myles Barlow in the Australian TV series, Review with Myles Barlow and the comedy series At Home with Julia, where he played Tim Mathieson, the partner of prime minister Julia Gillard.
At Home with Julia is a four-part Australian sitcom television series, created and written by Amanda Bishop, Rick Kalowski and Phil Lloyd, which debuted on 7 September 2011 on ABC1. A re-run of the series aired on ABC2 in April 2012. Currently, the series is in syndication in the United States on Vibrant TV Network.
Amanda Diana Bishop is an Australian actress and comedian, known for her comedy portrayals of Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister of Australia, in the television comedy At Home with Julia. Bishop had previously portrayed Gillard in the series Double Take, when Gillard was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.
Mary Virginia Skinner, known professionally as Jenna McMahon, was an American writer, producer, actress and comedian. She was best known for her Emmy Award-winning work as a writer on the variety/sketch comedy program The Carol Burnett Show and for co-creating the television sitcoms It's a Living, The Facts of Life, and Mama's Family along with her writing partner Dick Clair.
Tony Sattler is an Australian television writer and producer most famous for his development of the Australian television comedies The Naked Vicar Show and Kingswood Country with writer Gary Reilly.
Thomas Duncan-Watt is an Australian screenwriter and playwright. He has won three AWGIE awards for his screenplays from five nominations. His work on UK series Dennis & Gnasher earned the series its first BAFTA nomination. In 2017, he was one of the mentors at the Arts/Screen Hackathon, along with Sarah Houbolt and others, which was organized by Australia Council for the Arts.
Kristen Dunphy is an Australian television screenwriter and producer. She is best known as creator, co-writer and co-executive producer of Wakefield, which screened on ABC TV in 2021.