The Creator

Diplomatic Career

Brendan Berne is an Australian former civil servant and diplomat who served as Australian Ambassador to France, Algeria, Mauritania, and Monaco from 2017 to 2020, and previously as Australian Ambassador for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation from 2015 to 2017. Earlier in his career he was Chief of Staff for the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, with postings across the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Personal Life

In December 2017, following the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia, Berne proposed to his partner of eleven years — a moment captured on video that went on to circulate widely in France.

Writing Rank

After retiring from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the end of his posting as Ambassador to France, Berne began writing a television comedy about the diplomatic circuit — described at the time, with some understatement, as "In the Thick of It in a safari suit." That project is RANK: a satire built from the inside, by someone who spent a career in the rooms it sends up.