Rick Kalowski

Rick Kalowski is a Sydney-based Australian film and television writer.

After several years working as a lawyer, including clerking for a judge at the High Court of Australia, Kalowski sold his first screenplay, co-written with regular collaborator Andrew Jones, a political comedy entitled The Honourable Wally Norman, directed by veteran Australian film and TV director Ted Emery (responsible for such successes as Kath and Kim and Fast Forward), and starring well-known Australian performers including Kevin Harrington and Shaun Micallef. The film was opening night selection at the 50th Sydney Film Festival in 2003.

Kalowski's first work in television was as 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.

Between 2004 and 2006, Kalowski was head writer of the Nine Network late night sketch comedy series Comedy Inc - The Late Shift (2005- ). During that time, the show was nominated for 7 Australian Film Institute Awards, including successive nods for Best Television Comedy Series in 2005 and 2006, as well as the 2006 Logie award for Most Outstanding Comedy Program, and the Rose D'Or ("Golden Rose of Montreaux") Award for Best International Comedy Series.

Together with his regular collaborator, producer/director David McDonald, Kalowski left Comedy Inc - The Late Shift at the end of 2006, and is not involved in the currently airing fifth series of the show.

He won the 2006 AWGIE (Australian Writers' Guild Award) for Best Documentary Script for the comic training film "Learn to Lecture Like Me (with Master Lecturer Pat McRae)".

He is a former chairman of the New South Wales committee of the Australian Writers' Guild and currently serves as a director of its national board.

As of September 2007, it has been reported that Kalowski has signed a deal to develop his first television comedy series in the United States with an American television studio. [http://www.screenhub.com.au/news/newsarticle.asp?newsID=17338] .