David McAlister "Dave" Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnist, who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comedic and children's novels.

Barry's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988 and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2005. Barry has humorously described a sense of humor as "a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge."

Dave has also contributed to entertainment, with two of his books used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom "Dave's World," where Harry Anderson played a much taller version of Dave. Additionally, he plays lead guitar in a literary rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose other members include Stephen King, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson, and Mitch Albom.