Rani Cameron

I made a sitcom for nothing

I had a career in comedy for about two years. After working for nothing for about the same amount of time in community radio, my friends and I got our big break, taking part in a pilot for Australia's ABC-TV, and getting a gig on Radio National. I also started writing, on my own, for a mainstream comedy show on a commercial network. But it started to unravel almost as soon as it began. The list of disasters is fairly long, and we had no control over any of it: a first-time director who didn't bother to tell us he didn't understand any of our jokes, and then proceeded to edit the punchlines out of all our filmed material (there was no opportunity to re-cut); an incredibly toxic environment in the TV writers' room, in which I, the only female writer among an 18-strong team, faced sexual harassment from three writers, one of whom was my boss; strong resistance from fellow female performers who used their influence to discourage producers from hiring me, reasoning that there were not enough female parts to go around; and finally a whispering campaign, started by a writer who had a personal issue with me, telling everyone I was 'difficult'.