Writers

Steven Arriagada is an Indigenous Chilean-Italian screenwriter and director, with a keen eye for and interest in genre work. Steven has written multiple episodes of Stan’s hit series BUMP and is writing on multiple feature film projects for Toni Collette and Vocab Films.

Steven’s debut as director, writer and producer, NATHAN LOVES RICKY MARTIN was AACTA and Dendy nominated for Best Short Film. It ranked 6th in AACTA’s short films of the decade. He then adapted the short into a pilot, which was nominated for the AWG Monte Miller Award for best long-form script.

Ange Betzien is a multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter. Ange has written an episode for upcoming Netflix/See Saw series,  Apple Cider Vinegar and they are currently head writer on three literary adaptations and one original concept for television with Werner Film Productions, Lingo and See Saw.

Ange was a core writer on TOTAL CONTROL for ABC TV with Blackfella Films starring Rachel Griffiths and Deborah Mailman. TOTAL CONTROL won Best Drama Series at the 2019 AACTA awards.

Gemma Bird Matheson is an AWGIE and AACTA nominated writer and actor of South African and Papua New Guinean heritage. She was one of the 2023 Talent Gateway recipients, an initiative run by Screen Australia and Australians in Film.

Most recently, she co-created, wrote, produced and starred in the 6 x 6min series ME & HER(pes), funded by Screen Australia and Wear It Purple. The series premiered at the Mardi Gras Film Festival in 2023, was nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Online Series, and clocked over a million views in its first week on YouTube channel, OML.

Kit is a London-based playwright and screenwriter. Kit was a writer on Season 2 of TROPPO which was Top Ten on Amazon Prime in the US for over 4 weeks on release in July 2024. His original television series WATER’S EDGE is currently in development with iTV and UNINVITED GUESTS was a finalist in the Studio21 Drama Series competition.

Produced plays include THE STONES (Signal House/King’s Head Theatre), THE PLANT (Ensemble Theatre, Sydney), THE GREAT FIRE (Belvoir St Theatre), A RABBIT FOR KIM JONG-IL(Griffin Theatre Company), SMALL AND TIRED(Belvoir) and NIGHT MAYBE (Stuck Pigs Squealing Theatre).

Helena Brooks is based in Australia. Brooks recently directed crime-comedy POPULATION 11 starring Ben Feldman for Lionsgate/Jungle and was set-up director on the CBS Studios/ABC comedy GOLD DIGGERS. She was nominated for Best TV Comedy Direction at the 2023 ADG Awards. Dramas include set-up director for THE BAD SEED, reviewed as the best New Zealand noir since TOP OF THE LAKE, Sundance NOW’s THE GULF, THE BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES and ABC’s THE MESSENGER.

She directed Celeste Barber’s WELLMANIA for Netflix, Rose Matafeo’s FUNNY GIRLS and she co-wrote and directed Palme d’Or nominated short film NOTHING SPECIAL.

Nick Coyle is a television writer and theatre-maker. Renowned for his solo shows which he has toured around the world Nick created, wrote, directed and starred in webseries SARAHS CHANNEL which played at Comicon in 2019.

Nick has written eight episodes of television series BUMP across two seasons and returns for more episodes in Series 5, he wrote on Netflix’s WELLMANIA, QUEERSTRALIA for the ABC and ITS FINE, IM FINE for SBS On Demand. His play, THE FEATHER IN THE WEB, had its world premiere at Griffin Theatre Company in 2018 and was published by Currency Press and nominated for a NSW Premier’s Literary Award.

Reg is a screenwriter and playwright. He has been nominated for many more awards including four AWGIEs and two AFI’s for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Gemma is a screenwriter with a particular interest in genre and YA projects.

In 2023 David’s play SCENES FROM THE CLIMATE CHANGE ERA had its world premiere at Belvoir in Sydney; 44 SEX ACTS IN ONE WEEK was produced by Clubhouse Productions and has toured Australia and most recently went to Edinburgh Fringe; and David performed climate piece, solo show DEEP HISTORY, at the Edinburgh Festival, the Barbican in London, the Sydney Opera House and at the Canberra Theatre. In 2024 DEEP HISTORY transfers to The Public Theater in New York City.

Charles Firth is a writer, director, producer and actor. He is currently touring stage shows including WANKERNOMICS and THE WAR ON … and is also in post-production on ABC-Comedy scripted series OPTICS which he has produced, created, written and stars in.

Career highlights include roles as Managing editor of The Chaser Quarterly, Executive Producer of daily TV news comedy show The Roast, Creative Director at digital agency Manic Studios, Writer / presenter of MR FIRTH GOES TO WASHINGTON, Author of AMERICAN HOAX, Creative Director of CHANGEMAKERS podcast, Winner of two Logies (Most Outstanding Comedy) and Nominations for Rose D’Or and AACTA’s.

Charlie is a writer and actor. He co-created the ABC comedy series SANDO and is currently developing his comedy television series NEXT DOOR with production companies Easy Tiger and Thumper.

Declan Furber Gillick is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and performer from Mparntwe (Alice Springs). His practice spans prose, theatre, poetry, music, rap, film, television and visual arts.

Declan Greene is a theatre-maker, director, playwright, screenwriter and dramaturg. He is currently Artistic Director at Griffin Theatre Company.

Natassia Halabi is a screenwriter and actor born in Sydney Australia to a Muslim Syrian father and an Australian/European mother.

Andrew Kavanagh is a writer, director and composer. Andrew directed and produced VICE Australia’s flagship series: AUSTRALIANA, broadcast on SBS Viceland.

Ismail Khan is a Sydney based screenwriter and director with Wailwan and Pakistani heritage

Anchuli Felicia King is a playwright, screenwriter and multidisciplinary artist of Thai-Australian descent.

Her plays are performed globally and she is developing original television projects with studios and producers internationally.

Recent television writing credits include HBO/Team Downey series THE SYMPATHIZER starring Robert Downey Jnr and AMC/ Sky show MARY AND GEORGE starring Julianne Moore.

Josh Lawson is an Oscar-nominated writer and producer for short film THE ELEVEN O’CLOCK. Josh wrote and directed two feature films THE LITTLE DEATH and LONG STORY SHORT. The foreign remake rights have sold to many territories of these films and they have been remade in mulitple foreign language versions. His earlier short film, AFTER THE CREDITS won Best Comedy at the LA Shorts Fest.

Michele Lee is a Hmong-Australian writer working across television, film, stage, books, audio and live art.

Kirsty Marillier is a South African actor and award-winning playwright. Her debut play, ORANGE THROWER, premiered at the Griffin Theatre Company and National Theatre of Parramatta in 2022. ORANGE THROWER was the winner of the 2019 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, the Griffin AWard and the Nick Enright Prize at the NSW Premier’s Literary Award.

Kirsty’s second play, THE ZAP, was nominated for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2022 and won the Max Afford Playwrights Award in 2020. THE ZAP was developed with Playwriting Australia and Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s Next In Line program.

Elise McCredie is an award-winning showrunner, screenwriter and director.

Elise was showrunner on the first locally commissioned Australian Disney+ series THE CLEARING – a limited series starring Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto. Prior to this Elise was the showrunner of STATELESS with EPs and co-creators Tony Ayres and Cate Blanchett. It screened internationally on Netflix and had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. It won a record 13 AACTA awards including Best Television Drama in 2020.

Judi McCrossin is an award winning Australian screenwriter and producer. She is currently in development for a number of projects, many of which are based in the UK.

Kylie Needham is an author and award-winning screenwriter.

Trent O’Donnell is one of Australia’s most successful television directors and showrunners. He directs COLIN FROM ACCOUNTS created by Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer and received a 2023 AACTA Award nomination for Best Direction in Drama or Comedy for this work.

Trent set-up and Executive Produced series POPULATION 11 starring Ben Feldman. In the US Trent set-up, Executive Produced and directed more than 15 episodes of CBS hit remake of GHOSTS and he also directed Season 2 finale of the Emmy Award winning series HACKS starring Jean Smart.

Gracie recently directed six-part series LADIES IN BLACK, based on the film of the same name, starring Debi Mazar for Bunya Productions and ABC, she was set-up director on Netflix’s Top 10 series HEARTBREAK HIGH which won an International Emmy. Gracie directed Disney+ series THE ARTFUL DODGER starring David Thewlis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster.

Prior to this she directed THE CLEARING for Disney + starring Teresa Palmer, Miranda Otto and Guy Pearce and DEADLOCH, a feminist noir comedy, for Amazon Studios.

Hannah Reilly is an award winning Australian writer, director, lyricist and performer.

Mira Robertson is a screenwriter, script developer/editor, script consultant, screen writing teacher and short story writer.

Sarah Scheller is a screenwriter and director. She is currently showrunning STRIFE for Binge in Australia where she is working with Made Up Stories as producers.

Australian director and writer whose stage and screen work includes opera and international musicals, including three era-defining musicals HAIR (Sydney, Tokyo, Boston), JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (Australia, UK) and THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW (UK, USA, Australia), countless premieres and radical interpretations of classics, including works by Shakespeare, Mozart, Strindberg and Brecht.

Jeremy is a director, producer and writer of film, television and theatre. His feature films have been nominated for 25 AACTA awards.

Eloise is an award-winning writer, actor, producer and voice artist.

Samantha is an Australian writer and executive producer for film and television and founder of PICKING SCABS a joint venture with See-Saw Films. In 2024 Samantha will write and showrun GROWN UPS, an 8 part series for Netflix (UK), based on the bestelling novel by Marian Keyes. This will film in Ireland and be produced by Picking Scabs and See-Saw Films.

In 2023 Samantha was the showrunner, head writer, executive producer of APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, a 6 part limited series for Netflix. Starring Kaitlyn Dever and Alycia Debnam-Carey. Produced by Picking Scabs and See-Saw Films and set to air late 2024.

Kylie Trounson is a playwright, actor and lawyer. Kylie is currently writer in residence and has a major commission at the Melbourne Theatre Company for a new play.

Adrian is a Wonnarua man originally from Bourke NSW who is committed to explore the outsider, the fringe dweller, the rebel.