Ariane Sherine

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Ariane Sherine

Ariane Sherine speaking at TAM London in October 2009
Born 3 July 1980 (1980-07-03) (age 29)
London, UK
Occupation Comedy writer, journalist
Nationality British
Official website

Ariane Sherine (born 3 July 1980) is a British comedy writer, journalist and the creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign. She lives in London.

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[edit] Career

Sherine writes regularly for The Guardian's Comment & Debate section,[1] and has also written for The Sunday Times[2] and The Independent.[3] She started in journalism aged 21, reviewing albums for NME,[4] before coming runner-up in the BBC Talent New Sitcom Writers' Award 2002.[5] She then wrote comedy for mainstream British TV shows including the BBC sitcoms My Family[6] and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps,[7] and links for the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown after appearing on the show in 2003.[8] In addition, Sherine wrote episodes of several CBBC and CITV shows, including The Story of Tracy Beaker,[9] The New Worst Witch[10] and Space Pirates,[11] before returning to journalism in early 2008.

[edit] Secularism

Sherine and Richard Dawkins at the Atheist Bus Campaign launch in London

Sherine started the Atheist Bus Campaign in response to an evangelical Christian bus advertisement which gave the URL of a website "telling non-Christians they would spend 'all eternity in torment in hell', burning in 'a lake of fire'".[12] She was brought up Christian; her father is a Unitarian Universalist, while her mother's side of the family are Parsi Zoroastrians (though both parents are non-practising).[13] She has recently been nominated for Secularist of the Year 2009 (The Irwin Prize),[14] a title awarded by the National Secular Society.

In January 2009, Sherine gave a non-religious equivalent of Thought for the Day on Radio 4's iPM programme.[15][16] She spoke about accepting the beliefs of others as long as they are expressed peacefully, and how the freedom to hold them is more important than the beliefs themselves. Sherine's broadcast follows a similar one made by Richard Dawkins in 2002.[17] Thought for the Day continues to be reserved for religious speakers in its usual slot on Radio 4's Today Programme, on weekday mornings.

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