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Karl Quinn

Karl Quinn

Karl Quinn is a senior culture writer at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Is this Aussie comedy film racist? Its director doesn’t think so

There are plenty of people who think the last great Australian comedy was Crocodile Dundee – and filmmaker Tony Rogers might just be among them.

  • Karl Quinn

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In happier times: Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson.

Radio ratings: Kyle and Jackie departure leaves a big hole for KIIS

The first full survey without the controversial double act is bad news for station owners ARN. But over on Gold, they have reason to smile.

  • Karl Quinn
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson when they signed their $200 million deal with ARN in 2023.

Radio ratings: ABC still struggling, but does anyone miss Kyle and Jackie O?

Some green shoots for ABC 774, but the bigger problem remains, while KIIS listeners say “Kyle and Jackie who?”

  • Karl Quinn
Senuri Chandrani in Mad Rush, screening at MIFF 2026.

Is this how it feels to be young, broke, scammed and cast out on the street?

The new film Mad Rush, premiering at Melbourne International Film Festival, is urgent and powerful – and couldn’t be more relevant to many young people.

  • Karl Quinn
Ketamine Sofa from Belfast choreographer Oona Doherty.

With 26 acts in six spaces, it’s impossible to see it all – but I gave it a red-hot go

Rising’s full-day music festival had something for everyone, even if they didn’t know it beforehand.

  • Karl Quinn
‘No makeup required for this role’: Micallef will play a stately professor.

‘A story of boomers’: Shaun Micallef to star in classic Russian play

The man who brought us the much-loved (and missed) Mad As Hell is back – in his first theatrical role in a decade.

  • Karl Quinn
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Best TV shows this year (so far): Celia Pacquola in Dog Park; Madeleine Sami and Kate Box in Deadloch; Kylie Minogue in her Netflix documentary; Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms; and Noah Wyle in The Pitt.

The best TV shows of the year (so far)

While big hitters such as The Pitt delivered, there have also been a few genuinely delightful surprises.

  • Meg Watson, Louise Rugendyke, Craig Mathieson, Debi Enker, Kylie Northover and Karl Quinn
Stephen McCallum worked on the documentary Never Get Busted! for four years. He’s spent the past two years fighting for the right to have that work acknowledged.

Filmmaker wins landmark case to be acknowledged as ‘principal director’

In a highly unusual case, a director has taken a producer to court, alleging he was denied his rightful credit. And in a major decision, he won.

  • Karl Quinn
Khalid Abdalla

He played Dodi Al-Fayed in The Crown. Now Khalid Abdalla is on stage in Melbourne

There were calls to cancel the Anglo-Egyptian actor’s show Nowhere after Bondi. Now he’s brought it to Rising festival.

  • Karl Quinn
Journalist and filmmaker Dan Goldberg, whose film The Hunt For Australia’s Last Nazis is on SBS.

He was making a film about our shameful Nazi past – then the present intervened

Dan Goldberg had almost finished his SBS documentary The Hunt For The Last Nazis – then the Bondi massacre happened.

  • Karl Quinn