One of Australia’s leading film and television public relations consultants, with an extensive career in the film and television industry both in Australia and overseas, Catherine began her career with Warner Bros in 1983 working as an under-secretary in the legal department on such titles as Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan - Lord of the Apes, before joining Playpont Films – an international sales company representing a large catalogue of European arthouse titles including The Lift, Broken Mirrors, Ciske The Rat and Jos Stelling’s The Illusionist.
In 1985, Catherine joined Henson International Television (HIT!), with responsibility for the international marketing and advertising campaigns for their catalogue of programming, including The Very Best Of The Muppet Show, The Labyrinth, The Storyteller, Muppet Babies and Fraggle Rock. She also assisted with negotiations on pre-financing productions and the organisation of co-productions with major European broadcasters.
Moving to Australia in 1988, Catherine was appointed Head of Publicity and Promotions for the Beyond Group, before becoming Marketing Manager in the establishment of Beyond Films in 1991. In that role Catherine was strategically involved in the publicity and international marketing campaigns for a number of Australian features and television programs including The Crossing, Deadly, Struck By Lightning, Hammers Over The Anvil, Garbo, Spotswood, Golden Braid, The Girl Who Came Late, The Last Days of Chez Nous, The Magic Riddle, A Woman’s Tale and Strictly Ballroom.
In 1992 Catherine established her own public relations consultancy specialising in taking productions from script to screen, working on the features The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, Blinky Bill and Exile, before being appointed as Manager, Network Publicity for Network TEN in 1993.
In 1995 Catherine took a four year sabbatical with the family moving to and living in Japan.
Upon her return in 1999, Catherine re-established CLPR and was immediately appointed by Beyond to handle their corporate and public relations working on titles including Lantana, as well as managing the domestic release campaign for Rolf de Heer's The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, Paul Cox’s Innocence and the unit and release publicity for his The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky as well as the animated feature The Magic Pudding.
In 2001 CLPR was appointed by 20th Century Fox Film Distributors to handle the Australian marketing and publicity campaigns for the Fox Searchlight catalogue. CLPR was integrally involved in the marketing and publicity campaigns for titles including Sexy Beast, Tigerland, Waking Life, The Deep End, De-Lovely, Kissing Jessica Stein, The Good Girl, One Hour Photo, The Good Thief, L'Auberge Espagnol, 28 Days Later, Le Divorce, Antwone Fisher, Thirteen, Owning Mahowny, In America, The Clearing, The Dancer Upstairs and Napoleon Dynamite, as well as working on the Australiasian premiere of the twentieth James Bond feature Die Another Day.
Expanding their client base, CLPR went on to manage the Australian theatrical release publicity campaigns for titles including Donnie Darko, Khoa Do's The Finished People, Paradise Now, Molokai: The Story of Father Damian, Broken Wings, Tais Toi, Atanarjuat, Infernal Affairs and Elephant, The Closet, Dangerous Liaisons and American Splendor. Further script to screen credits include One Night The Moon, Willfull, The Bet, Razzle Dazzle, Footy Legends, Mother Fish, 33 Postcards and The Black Balloon, as well as working with Adam Eliot and Melanie Coombs on the Oscar® campaign and resulting media for the Academy Award® winning short animated film Harvie Krumpet.
Appointed by Showtime Australia to handle the publicity campaigns of their special event television and the launch of the new premium channel showcase, CLPR managed the Australian publicity campaigns for Deadwood, Dexter, Love My Way, True Blood, season three, Tangle seasons one and two, Satisfaction, The Tudors, Rome and Tim Winton ’s cloudstreet.
The campaign for cloudstreet received two ASTRA Awards for Most Outstanding Off-Air Program Promotion awarded to the most creative and effective off-air program promotion for a single subscription TV program, series or event and Most Outstanding PR/Communications Campaign awarded to the most creative and effective stand-alone PR or Communications campaign.
Over her career, Catherine has managed the publicity campaigns for numerous film festivals including Flickerfest, the Spanish Film Festival, the Travelling Sydney Film Festival, the Russian Film Festival and the Sydney Asia Pacific Film Festival.
CLPR has managed the unit publicity for television productions including all three seasons of Screentime's Informer 3838, Pine Gap, Playing For Keeps, Janet King, The Secret Daughter, ANZAC Girls, Crownies, and Brothers In Arms, as well as managing the materials requirements for Fat Tony & Co, Underbelly: Badness, Underbelly: Squizzy and Wolf Creek the television series. The company also manages all of Blackfella Films' productions including the highly acclaimed Mabo and multi award winning series Redfern Now (seasons one, two and the telemovie Promise Me), First Contact (season 2), Deep Water and most recently Total Control. Credits also include Playmaker's The Wrong Girl, Hiding, four seasons of Love Child, two seasons of The Code, Reckoning and The Commons, Storyark's Carlotta, Gristmill's Upper Middle Bogan, Jungle's A Moody Christmas, Easy Tigers' Jack Irish Season 2, the fifth and final season of Rake and all seasons of Doctor Doctor (aka The Heart Guy), CJZ's House of Bond, Endemol's Blue Murder: Killer Cop, Lingo's Wake In Fright and The Secrets She Keeps and both seasons of Bunya Productions' multi award winning Mystery Road.
Most recently CLPR managed the publicity for Endemol Shine Australia's NCIS: Sydney, HELIUM's Last King of the Cross and Paper Dolls, Screentime's The Claremont Murders and Underbelly: Vanishing Act, two seasons of Perpectual Entertainment's (formerly EQ Media Group)/Beyond Entertainment's Troppo, Matchbox's Class of '07, Bunya Production's True Colours, 7Studios Back To The Rafters for Amazon Prime, Endemol Shine Banks' RFDS for Channel Seven and Easy Tigers' fifth season of Doctor Doctor for Channel Nine, as well as the unit and to premiere publicity for Beyond's Halifax: Retribution.
CLPR’s most recent feature campaigns include The Appleton Ladies Potato Race, the documentary feature The Portal, Lliam Worthington's One Less God (aka Mumbai Seige: Four Days of Terror), Abe Forsythe's Down Under, Chris Peckover's Safe Neighborhood (aka Better Watch Out), Shane Abbess' Science Fiction Volume 1: The Osiris Child, as well as previously handling Anupam Sharma's unINDIAN, Stephan Elliott's A Few Best Men and Not Suitable For Children as well as Gristmill Productions’ comedy feature Now Add Honey. CLPR has also assisted Bunya Productions with the media materials for Satellite Boy and the Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival publicity for the highly acclaimed and mullti award winning Sweet County.
Having managed campaigns for some of Australia’s most iconic titles, Catherine has built a reputation as one of Australia’s leading film and television public relations consultants specialising in taking productions from script to screen. CLPR also manages the corporate public relations profile of its clients as well as handling personal publicity requirements for a number of leading film and television identities.
In 2020 Catherine was appointed to the National Executive Committee of the Society of Australian Cinema Pioneers, and is a member of the Australian Film Institute and the Australian Academy of Cinema, Television & Arts.
Until she stepped down in 2023, Catherine was a founding board member of the Sydney City Ballet.