Charlie Pickering is an Australian comedian, television and radio presenter, author and producer. He hosts The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, a weekly news satire television show on the ABC. He is known as a former co-host on the current affairs program The Project, and regularly appeared on the game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation as the "Generation X" team captain.
Career
Early career
After leaving his job as a lawyer, Pickering made his first appearance in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2002 with Michael Chamberlin in Boiling Point, a show which earned them the Piece of Wood Award. In 2003, Pickering and Chamberlin teamed up again in Boiling Point 2, the pair also appearing the same year with fellow comedian Terri Psiakis in Equal Third. In 2004, he appeared in Revolver. In 2005, Pickering launched Betterman at the MICF, a show he went on to tour in New Zealand where he won the Best International Act in the New Zealand Comedy Guild Awards, and also at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he was nominated for the Perrier Award's Best Newcomer. In 2006 he presented his show Auto at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, receiving a nomination for the Barry Award. For the April 2013 Melbourne International Comedy festival, he co-hosted with Waleed Aly a series of shows titled The World's Problems Solved.
Television
In 2008, Pickering co-hosted a show with Michael Chamberlin on The Comedy Channel called The Mansion. The series ran for 13 episodes. Pickering hosted season 3 of Channel V's travelling game show, Cash Cab. From 2009 to 2012, he was a team captain on Network Ten's quiz showTalkin' 'Bout Your Generation, representing Generation X. In July 2009, he became a co-host on Network Ten's infotainment program, The Project, with Carrie Bickmore and Dave Hughes. On 12 March 2014, Pickering announced that he was leaving The Project to "find new challenges", and in April 2015 he started hosting a weekly comedy/news satire program on ABC entitled The Weekly with Charlie Pickering. In 2018, Charlie hosted Tomorrow Tonight on the ABC with Annabel Crabb. Other television appearances include Rove Live, The Glass House, Today, Stand Up!, the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala, @Seven, The Project, Celebrity Name Game, Show Me the Movie! and Hughesy, We Have a Problem.
Radio
Pickering has also worked in Australian radio, including youth radio station Triple J from 2001 to 2003. He has been a pundit on Fighting Talk on BBC Radio 5 Live in 2006 and 2007.
Literature
Pickering published his first book, Impractical Jokes, in 2010.
As co-host of Channel Ten's The Project, Pickering claimed to have voted Liberal "once". Pickering has hosted the ABC political and cultural commentary program The Weekly with Charlie Pickering since 2015. New Matilda describes the program as "a satirical news program with a progressive bent". On the program, Pickering has used his editorials to support halal certification and gay marriage, to speak out against the detention of asylum seekers, and to criticize the Catholic Church for refusing to report confessions of child abuse to police.
