Kate McLennan

Kate McLennan (born ) is an Australian comedian, writer and actor. McLennan has performed in Australia and internationally, including at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She is known in Australia for her work on television and web series such as The Katering Show, Get Krack!n, The Mansion, and Deadloch. She produces most of her work with Kate McCartney, which has led to their being dubbed the Kates.

Early life McLennan was born around 1980.

She rose to fame writing and performing her solo comedy show The Debutante Diaries, which won her the Best Comedy Award and Best Emerging Artist Award at the Melbourne Fringe in 2006.

McLennan co-created the web series Bleak with Kate McCartney in 2010, which in won the Kit Denton Disfellowship for Courage and Excellence in Performance Writing at the 2011 AWGIE Awards, worth .

Since then, "the two Kates" have worked together a lot. McLennan and McCartney formed their production company called Lead Balloon TV. They wrote, produced and starred as an intolerable foodie (McLennan) and a food intolerant (McCartney) in a cooking-based web series called The Katering Show which screened on their YouTube channel in 2014. A second season of The Katering Show was screened on the ABC TV and then on ABC iview in 2016.

In June 2023 an eight-part crime comedy McLennan worked on with McCartney entitled Deadloch and starring Kate Box premiered on Amazon Prime Video. The series was a worldwide hit, reaching the top 10 on Prime in over 165 countries, including the UK and the US. The second series, set in the Top End, premiered on Amazon on 20 March 2026.

Personal life McLennan has a daughter.

Stand-up Comedy Year Award Category Work Result Role Ref. 2006 Melbourne Fringe Festival Best Comedy Award The Debutante Diaries Writer, performer 2006 Melbourne Fringe Festival Best Emerging Artist Award The Debutante Diaries Writer, performer 2011 The Age M-IE Award for Rising Comedy Star The Debutante Diaries Writer, performer 2024 13th AACTA Awards Best Screenplay in Television Deadloch (Episode 1) Co-writer

Stand-up comedy tours

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 2007 All The Way to the Top Hayley Actor 2009 Four Minutes of Fame Karla Tutt Actor 2010 Kwik Fix Samara Actor

Television

Web series Year Title Role Notes 2014 Bleak – The Web Series Writer / Actor (Anna) 4 episodes 2015 The Katering Show Writer / Producer / Herself Season 1, 6 episodes