Australian Screenwriters Podcast

Today's guest Andy Muir has worked his way through various script departments and written for Underbelly and Neighbours.  He's also a novel writer, having written the novelisation of Underbelly: Squizzy and later this year his first original novel, Something For Nothing will be released.    

This episode's guest, Rick Kalowski, started his professional career as a lawyer, but turned to screenwriting after his first screenplay got produced, by none other than Emile Sherman.   He went on to become the head writer of sketch comedy show Big Bite and also created At Home With Julia; A show so dangerous, it prompted the Labor party to commission a study to prove it wasn't funny. He's now th...

Michaeley O'Brien is an incredibly experienced writer. She studied journalism, but slipped into screenwriting after attending AFTRS and then doing submissions for Home & Away. Her career has taken across so many shows I can't list them all, but highlights include Blue Heelers, McLeod's Daughters, Underbelly and Serangoon Road. As well talking through her career, Michaeley shares the secret to not...

There's all sorts of ways to become a screenwriter.  Grant Scicluna got there after being awarded funding for his short-film The Wilding and having that play in festivals around the world, he then used that as a trailer to get funding for upcoming feature Downriver . But that makes the journey sound easy.  Through the years of writing these projects Grant has toughed it out working part-time jobs...

Alice's first screenplay, Suburban Mayhem, went to the Cannes film festival she hasn't looked back from there.  She was noticed by prolific TV Producer John Edwards and has worked for him ever since.  With a slight detour through The Slap, she's written Rush, Spirited, Puberty Blues and The Beautiful Lie. Alice talks about the pressure taking over from Tony McNamara as head writer for Puberty Blue...

Shelley Birse built her career the old-fashioned way, working her way through the ranks of the script department on GP.  She has since gone on to become one of Australia's premiere screenwriters, working on such shows as Wildside, Stingers, Blue Water High, Satisfaction and Lockie Leonard. Last year saw the release of The Code, the highly acclaimed and award winning thriller which she created wrot...

If you've ever wanted to make your own web series then this is the episode for you.  My guests this week, Courtney Wise and Kacie Anning give a great insight into making their popular web series Fragments of Friday . Courtney and Kacie discuss the development of Fragments of Friday from Kacie crowd-funding series 1, gaining Screen Australia funding for series 2 and then marketing and distributing...

Tommy Murphy started as a playwright, with a residency at Sydney's Griffin Theatre where he wrote Strangers In Between and Holding The Man , which won the NSW Premiers Literary Award for Best Play two years running.  It was Holding the Man which would divert his career to screenwriting.  After many drafts and years of development, the film was released in 2014 to much acclaim.   Tommy discusses hi...

My guest this Episode is Shaun Grant.  He won an AACTA award in 2012 for his first screenplay, the chilling Snowtown and since then has worked on acclaimed TV shows Killing Time and Deadline Gallipoli.   In the podcast Shaun talks about why he had to quit his school teacher job on a Friday to start work on Killing Time the following Monday, how he came to write Snowtown and projects he's working o...

Margot Nash is a very accomplished screenwriter and director.  Her feature films have been nominated for many AFI awards and the NSW Premiers Literary Award.  She's run documentary training workshops for Pacific Island women and mentorships for Indigenous filmmakers.  She currently teaches screenwriting at University of Technology in Sydney while her latest film 'The Silences' is a personal accoun...

Andrew Anastasios co-wrote the hit film The Water Diviner and is currently working on the Jack Irish TV series as writer and Producer. We begin talking about how one small line in a war diary prompted him to create this story.  We're soon joined by his co-writer of the film Andrew Knight. We learn heaps about the background of the Water Diviner before the discussion turns to all aspects of the ind...

This Ep is something very different.  Instead of a sitdown interview, thanks to the AWG I was lucky enough to interview winners backstage at the 48th Annual Australian Writers Guild Awards (Awgies) last Friday night, 11th September 2015.  There are 21 short clips which encompass most of the winners on the night.   Andrew Anastasios Tommy Murphy Brendan Cowell Dave Wade Tim Pye Aden Rolfe Josh Thom...

The Sullivans, Prisoner, The Man From Snowy River, All The Rivers Run, The Far Country, Seachange and Underbelly, to name but a few. This episode of the podcast we take a look at screenwriting from a different perspective.  That of the actress.  I was privileged to talk to acting legend Sigrid Thornton.  We talk about what she looks for in a script and find out some favourite memories from her car...

Senior Drama Producer at Screentime Peter Gawler has had a long and successful career writing and producing numerous shows, most notably the Underbelly franchise.  Peter talks about his path into the industry via some less than safe stunt shooting and then as a trainee at Crawfords.  He also discusses how the upcoming Wolf Creek series came about and his enjoyment of writing in the horror genre.

This episode is something a bit different than normal in that my guest is a living legend of Australian Screenwriting, Tom Hegarty. Tom was a writer during the glory years of Crawfords during the 60's, 70's and 80's, working on such influential shows as Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police, Eureka Stockade, A Town Like Alice. Tom also worked through the 90's on E Street, Stingers and Blue Heelers....

Debra Oswald has written on many local shows, Police Rescue, Wildside and even Bananas in Pyjamas to name but a few.  She has also written numerous plays, young adult novels and has another novel Useful, out now.  But it's as creator and head-writer of the highly successful Offspring that she is best known.   We delve into all things writing; Debra talks about tips and tricks to get into writing e...

Kelly Lefever comes from a long line of screenwriters and got her start on Prisoner as a 17 year old.  From there she has written for numerous productions including Neighbours, Blue Heelers, The Circuit and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries to name but a few.   In this episode Kelly discusses many topics including her writing routine, dealing with the anxiety of delivering scripts, the benefits of th...

How do you get a job working on the biggest soap in the UK?   Tell the truth and admit you've never seen the show!   It worked for Peter Mattessi, but he's also a talented, hard-working writer.   While writing for Neighbours here in Australia, Peter still writes for Eastenders and Holby City back in England.  Peter talks about writing those popular shows, the pitching and development process in En...

Adam Zwar has appeared on our screens since the late 90's, but it was when his sitcom about a man in a dog suit (Wilfred) first aired in 2007 that his profile exploded.  Since then, he has been a constant in the comedy scene in Australia with The Agony... series of shows, Lowdown and even a US adaptation of Wilfred.   We talk about how Adam writes, how Wilfred and Lowdown came to be and what his n...

Kristen Dunphy started her career in the ABC script department, back when broadcasters did everything in-house.  She quickly moved up the ranks and got her first script on GP.  Over the years Kristen has written for numerous crime dramas including White Collar Blue, the acclaimed Wildside and East West 101 amongst many more.   In this podcast, Kristen relates stories of her days at the ABC, the en...

Prolific screenwriter and AWGIE winner Sam Meikle may well be the most versatile writer we've had on the podcast.   Not only is he a prolific writer of Home & Away and Neighbours, but he's written a documentary, numerous hour-long dramas, kid's animation and currently has a feature film in the works. Amongst other things, Sam outlines his technique for writing feature film screenplays and we find...

This is a must listen for all aspiring screenwriters.   Emerging Writer Niki Aken shares her experience of breaking into the industry and gaining her first professional script.   We also delve deep into her writing process, learn that she did so much research for Underbelly she could have consulted back to the Police about their cases and how she managed to write the criminal characters who inhabi...

Zak Hilditch is a Perth based Writer/Director who released his first feature film These Final Hours to much acclaim last year.  On the podcast Zak discusses writing the film, how he obtained funding from ScreenWest and Screen Australia, being introduced to Rob Connolly, alternate endings and how he bounced back from the disappointing Australian box office.

This episode I talk to Blake Ayshford, who started his career with a Home & Away episode and a stint as Script Editor on All Saints. Blake was really honest about having long periods outside the industry, unable to find writing gigs. But he proves that perseverance pays off as he's been prolific in recent years, writing on Crownies, The Straits, The Code and Devil's Playground. Blake also talks ab...

Sarah is currently Script Producer for 'Wonderland', a show she also co-created. Durin her career, Sarah has also written for or Script Produced 'Home & Away', 'Neighbours', 'Winners & Losers' and 'All Saints'. In this episode, she recounts stories of getting an agent, going to Hollywood to pitch and reveals some big news on who bought that pitch. Hang around to the end for her amazing story of ho...