Kerry Michael O'Brien (born 27 August 1945) is an Australian journalist based in Byron Bay.

O'Brien was born into a Catholic family in Brisbane, Queensland, where he attended St Laurence's College.

He has worked in newspapers, wire service and television news and current affairs, as a general reporter, feature writer, political and foreign correspondent, interviewer and compere, and served as press secretary to Labor leader Gough Whitlam.

"[6] O'Brien announced in September 2010 that he would be resigning as the editor and presenter of The 7.30 Report at the end of the year and would move on to new roles within the ABC in 2011.

[21] Educated by the Christian Brothers, he became a non-believer in his mid-20s, but said in 2015: "I don't regret the Catholic culture I was exposed to in terms of social justice and basic fairness, that sense of all people being born equal.

[22] In interviews O'Brien has said of South African president Nelson Mandela that "To be close to that kind of greatness, I would regard as a privilege."

'"[22] Former conservative Liberal prime minister John Howard wrote in his autobiography Lazarus Rising that "the politics of Kerry O'Brien, presenter of the ABC's 7.30 Report were a mile away from mine.

[25][26] O'Brien welcomed the replacement of Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott by the less conservative Malcolm Turnbull in 2015, telling Fairfax that it was "a little burst of sunlight nationally" and that "There's a surge of relief because things were so bad.

"[27] In his 2019 induction speech to the Logie Hall of Fame, O'Brien voiced his support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart and called on the Australian Parliament, during the current term, to "make a genuine effort to understand and support what is embodied in the Uluru Statement From the Heart".