Peter MattessiPresident
Peter Mattessi writes television across the UK and Australia. He is the co-creator and Executive Producer of Return to Paradise, an Australian spin-off of the global hit Death in Paradise, which will be broadcast on ABC and BBC One in 2024. He has recently written on an unannounced project for Amazon UK, and prior to that was Co-Executive Producer for Season 2 of Every Cloud Productions’ Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries for Acorn and Seven. In the UK he has been on the EastEnders core writing team for over ten years, and in Australia worked on The Heights for the ABC and BBC One from the very early stages of development, as well as many years with Neighbours. He has original television and stage projects in development in Australia, the UK, and the US.
Shanti GudgeonVice President
Shanti Gudgeon has written for Foxtel comedy/drama series SLiDE for Playmaker Media, Conspiracy 365 for Circa Films, Dance Academy for Werner Productions and ABC3, Trip for Biscuits for ABC3, and Nowhere Boys for Matchbox Pictures and ABC3. Nowhere Boys won the AACTA Award for Best Children’s Series and the LOGIE Award for Best Children’s Series, while Trip for Biscuits has been nominated for an SPA Award for Best Children’s Television Productions. Most recently, Shanti wrote for the second season of Wolf Creek. Shanti’s screenplay, Scratches + Cuts, was selected for Film Victoria’s New Feature Writers Scheme and it was also nominated for an IF Award for best unproduced feature screenplay. Her feature script, Under The Black Flag, was selected by the Producer’s Guild of America for their International Co-Production Showcase. Shanti in development on the feature All I Know of the Devil, supported through Screen Australia.
Niki Aken
Niki Aken is a multi-award-winning writer working across comedy and drama. Niki has written on all three seasons of the popular and critically acclaimed ABC series The Newsreader, which won the 2021 AACTA for Best Drama Series. She co-wrote SBS’ The Hunting, which was the highest-rating commissioned drama in SBS history, and wrote an episode and served as script producer on both seasons of the critically acclaimed comedy-drama series Upright (Foxtel/Sky UK). Niki was a Co-EP and development Script Producer on the SBS anthology series Erotic Stories, which debuted at SXSW Sydney. Her other credits include ABC’s Significant Others, ANZAC Girls, which won an AWGIE for Best Adapted Miniseries, and also multiple series of both Janet King. For her work on Nine Network’s Underbelly, Niki and the writing team won two AWGIES for Best Adapted Miniseries.
Shayne ArmstrongQLD
Shayne Armstrong is an award-winning Australian film and TV screenwriter specialising in horror, thriller and science-fiction. As one half of the Armstrong & Krause screenwriting partnership (with SP Krause), his credits include the feature films Acolytes and Bait 3D, telemovies Johnny Bravo Goes to Bollywood and Exchange Student Zero, and the children’s TV sci-fi series and Doctor Who spin-off K-9. Along with his writing partner, Shayne is a two-time winner of the AWG John Hinde Award For Excellence In Science-Fiction and their sci-fi short script Rarer Monsters won Best Short Film Script Award at the 2013 AWGIES. Shayne is a script consultant and a writer and creative consultant for Disney X-D (UK/Europe and US) and Cartoon Network (Asia-Pacific). He is also a lecturer and tutor of screenwriting at University of Queensland and the New York Film Academy (Gold Coast). He has a Master of Arts in Screenwriting from QUT, Brisbane.
Kodie Bedford
Kodie was born in Western Australia, with strong family ties to the East Kimberley. Working mostly in television, Kodie’s credits include Mystery Road (ABC), Squinters (ABC) and Grace Beside Me (NITV/ABC). She made her directorial debut with a short horror film, Scout. Kodie received the Balnaves Fellowship for 2019 to develop her own play with Belvoir Theatre, Cursed! which was staged for the Belvoir Theatre 2020 season. Most recently, Kodie co-wrote and script produced ABC Iview series All My Friends are Racist which was nominated for Best Short Form Comedy for the 2021 AACTA awards and she also script produced and wrote for Warwick Thornton’s vampire show Firebite for AMC+.
Andrew BovellSA
Andrew Bovell is an internationally awarded writer for the stage and screen. His most recent play Song of First Desire, premiered in Madrid in 2023 and will be seen at Belvoir St Theatre in 2025. Other plays include Anthem (Co-writer), Things I Know to be True, The Secret River (adapted from the novel by Kate Grenville) When the Rain Stops Falling Holy Day, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class (Co-writer) and Speaking in Tongues on which his award-winning film, Lantana is based. Other screen credits include feature films In the Shadow of Iris (Jahil Lespert), A Most Wanted Man, (Anton Corbjín) adapted from the novel by John Le Carré. Blessed (Co-writer, based on the play Who’s Afraid of the Working Class) Edge of Darkness (Martin Campbell), Head On (Ana Kokkinos) based on the novel Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas and Strictly Ballroom (with Craig Pearce and Dir Baz Lurhmann). His television adaptation of Things I Know to be True is in development as a six-part TV series starring Nicole Kidman.
Sam MeikleNSW
Sam Meikle is a highly experienced writer and creator with hundreds of hours of produced credits across a broad range of television dramas, comedies, animation and web series. He has worked extensively in development for many of Australia’s leading production houses, and written and interviewed for documentary works. His short films have screened at festivals around the world and he’s been engaged to develop multiple feature film projects. Sam holds a Masters in screenwriting from the AFTRS (2000), he’s a graduate of the NIDA Playwrights’ Studio (2000), he’s been nominated for three AACTA Awards and 12 Australian Writers’ Guild Awards, winning four. Most recently, Sam was a writer, an Executive Producer and co-showrunner of Wakefield for the ABC, BBC Studios and Showtime, and a co-creator, head writer, and Executive Producer of MaveriX for the ABC and Netflix.
Aaron McCannWA
Aaron McCann is an Irish born, Australian raised, writer and director (and sometimes a 1st AD, and occasionally an actor) who is currently based in Western Australia. He rose to international success in 2012 with his short film Perished, which he co-wrote with Stefan Radanovich and premiered at SXSW, and his webseries and online shorts Henry & Aaron’s 7 Steps to Superstardom, It’s A Snap! and Set Yourself Free, which collectively gained over 24 Million Views online and were co-written with Henry Inglis between 2012 and 2014. Since then, he has co-written and co-directed the feature films Top Knot Detective (2017) and Koko: A Red Dog Story (2019) with Dominic Pearce and also written for the ABC/Matchbox Series The Heights. Along with Pearce, he has been a semi-finalist in the Academy Nicholls Fellowship (2018) and has won the Script Pipeline First Look Screenplay Completion (2018) for their screenplay Big Red. Aaron continues to work as a writer and director and is a member of the AWG, ADG and the Professional Film Crew WA.
Katherine ThomsonNSW
Katherine joined the AWG in 1984 and has served the Guild in various capacities including as Vice President. Among her many professional achievements is being a recipient of both the QLD and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards as well as 12 AWGIE Awards, including a Major AWGIE for Answered by Fire. Her play Harbour was commissioned to open the new Sydney Theatre, and Katherine’s most recent work on screen has been the telemovies House of Hancock and Schapelle, two projects she remembers as being written with lawyers sitting on her shoulders. Her latest theatrical release is Women He’s Undressed, a feature film documentary for Gillian Armstrong about the (almost) unknown Orry-Kelly, an Oscar-winning costume designer.