Ariane Sherine

Ariane Sherine (born 3 July 1980) is a British musical stand-up comedian, comedy writer and journalist. She created the Atheist Bus Campaign, which ran in 13 countries during January 2009.

Career

Sherine writes regularly for The Spectator,^[1] The Guardian's Comment & Debate section,^[2] and has also written for The Sunday Times,^[3] The Independent,^[4] Esquire magazine and New Humanist.

She was expelled from school aged 16, and spent her late teens hanging out with the band Duran Duran at their studio. She played piano on two tracks at the recording sessions for the Duran Duran album Pop Trash.^[5]

She started in journalism aged 21, reviewing albums for NME,^[6] before coming runner-up in the BBC Talent New Sitcom Writers' Award 2002.^[7] She also did six months on the stand-up comedy circuit in 2003, reaching the Final of the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year.^[8]

She then wrote comedy for British TV shows including the BBC sitcoms My Family^[9] and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps,^[10] and links for the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown after appearing on the show in 2003.^[11] In addition, Sherine wrote episodes of several CBBC and CITV shows, including The Story of Tracy Beaker,^[12] The New Worst Witch^[13] and Space Pirates,^[14] before returning to journalism in early 2008.

In 2010, Sherine suffered a major nervous breakdown ^[15] which she attributed to being violently attacked by a boyfriend while pregnant, as well as having had a violent childhood. She was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder, paranoia and obsessive-compulsive disorder, for which she is on medication. As a result of her breakdown, she did not write for over three years.^[16]

Sherine returned to writing for The Guardian at the end of 2013. In 2014, her comedy pop group The Lovely Electric released their debut album. Sherine wrote, performed and co-produced all the tracks.^[17] The album received good reviews, and an average of 4.7 stars out of 5 on Amazon.^[18]

In 2016, Sherine went back to the stand-up circuit. Her song Love Song for Jeremy Corbyn was featured in the London Evening Standard^[19] Her weekly email Adventures of a Stand-Up Comic is serialised on the UK’s leading comedy website, Chortle.^[20]

Atheism

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'".^[21] She was brought up Christian, although her father is currently a Unitarian Universalist, while her mother's side of the family are Parsi Zoroastrians (both parents are non-practising).^[22] In 2009, Sherine was nominated for Secularist of the Year 2009 (The Irwin Prize),^[23] 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.^[24][25] 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.^[26] Thought for the Day continues to be reserved for religious speakers in its usual slot on Radio 4's Today Programme, on weekday mornings.

In October 2009 the first atheist charity book, The Atheist's Guide to Christmas was released, which Sherine had been editing for the prior six months. The full advance and royalties from the book were donated to the UK HIV charity, Terrence Higgins Trust.^[27]

In late 2009, Sherine announced that she was ceasing atheist campaigning and returning to journalism and writing a novel.^[28][29] She remains a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.^[30]

Philanthropy

In December 2013, Sherine launched a new campaign in The Guardian called Give Just One Thing,^[31] linked to a free e-book she had written called Give: How to Be Happy, available from the website givebook.co.uk. The campaign encouraged people to do just one of ten practical actions to improve the world, from signing the Organ Donor register to organising a charity initiative. As part of the campaign, Sherine sold 50% of her possessions in aid of the humanitarian charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.^[32]

Personal life

Sherine has a daughter, and is a single mother.^[33]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ariane Sherine.

• Ariane Sherine's official website
• Ariane Sherine's Guardian profile
• atheistcampaign.org, the Atheist Bus Campaign
• Ariane Sherine's Blog