Clare Sladden is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based screenwriter with an authorial creative voice and a passion for female-driven stories. Her television credits include Good Cop/Bad Cop, NCIS: Sydney, Eden and Sunny Nights. In the audio space, Clare wrote on the Wentworth spin-off podcast, and she wrote, directed and co-produced the Audible Original podcast, Winding Road.  Clare has been selected for numerous prestigious industry programs, including Screen Producers Australia’s Ones to Watch in 2020, the Bradford Winters Lab in 2021, and Australians in Film and Screen Australia’s Talent Gateway in 2025. In 2024, Clare received Screen Australia development funding for her feature Sophie Next Door, which she’ll write, direct and co-produce, and she completed a showrunner attachment under John Quaintance on Good Cop/Bad Cop. Most recently, Clare was a 2026 Tropfest finalist with her short film Faker, she was a script consultant on season one of Two Years Later  and Clare was nominated for an Australian Writers’ Guild Award for her episode of Good Cop/Bad Cop. 

Rhianna Malezer is a proudly queer Butchulla and Kamilaroi writer, filmmaker and artist. She began her career in the art department with credits including Goldstone, Thor: Ragnarok, Mortal Engines and Elvis, before shifting into screenwriting and directing. As a screenwriter, she’s worked on ABC’s Black Comedy, Bunya Productions’ Nice Shorts and Ludo Studio’s The Strange Chores. Her webseries Biting Dust was selected for AFTRS National Talent Camp 2020 and The Equity Foundation’s Diversity Showcase 2021, while her drama series Suburban Beats was selected for Screen Queensland’s First People’s First Draft initiative. In 2022, her short script The Stockman, developed with support from Screen Australia’s First Nations Department, won the AWG Monte Miller Award. In 2024, Rhianna was the Queensland recipient of the SBS Emerging Writer’s Incubator, through which she worked as development associate at Orange Entertainment Co. Her online series Mangrove Mansion, co-created with Mary Duong, was shortlisted for SBS’s Digital Originals 2024. Rhianna was selected for BLACKapple and Common Ground’s inaugural She Directs program, receiving mentorship from directors Beck Cole, Briar Grace-Smith and Tanith Glynn-Maloney. She has directed a music video for First Nations musician GLVES, while her experimental short wului: pink smoke received a Common Ground Grounded Story Grant. With sparkling imagination and passion for taking audiences on surprising journeys, Rhianna’s storytelling explores connection, healing and resistance with joyful mischievousness and generous spirit. 

Stephanie Dower is a Queensland-based screen producer, writer, access coordinator, and founder of Dower Productions, supported through Screen Queensland’s Business Enterprise Fund. As one of only nine access coordinators trained through Screen Australia and UK-based Casarotto Ramsay & Associates (formerly Bridge06), Steph has become a leading voice in disability inclusion across the Australian screen industry. Her work spans major productions including the feature film Spit, Amazon MGM Studios’ The Bluff and the ABC children’s series Dance with Tom. She has also served as access coordinator for Screen Forever for three consecutive years. Alongside her access work, Stephanie continues to build a dynamic creative slate. She directed episodes of the Screen Australia-supported online series Path to Paris, which has amassed more than 250,000 views and took her to the 2024 Summer Paralympics for filming. Previously, she produced the AACTA Awards-nominated short film And The Ocean Agreed alongside Luisa Martiri and Writer/Director Tanya Modini, as well as Sunshine, a collaboration between Bus Stop Films and Taste Creative funded through Screen Queensland’s RIDE Shorts initiative. 

Emma Sargent is a Brisbane-based media producer whose career spans documentary distribution, impact campaigns and audience-first digital content. She began in exhibition production and archive management working alongside legendary war photojournalist Tim Page, before spending nearly eight years as Operations, Distribution and Marketing Manager at Antidote Films under Gil Scrine, where she managed national theatrical campaigns for Australian documentaries and built the audience engagement and impact strategies that carried those films beyond the cinema. She is co-founder of Five Storey Films, a female-led Queensland factual production company, and founder of Moxie Mojo Media, her boutique digital content and distribution business, designed to support filmmakers find pathways to audience. Emma’s work in social media reaches back more than a decade—first helping small business owners manage their channels and create content, then integrating social strategy with film distribution and impact work and now managing channels and producing unique direct-to-audience content with independent creators. That trajectory has given her a practical, ground-level view of how storytellers can build sustainable revenue and reach their audiences directly in an online-first landscape. 

Kristen Souvlis is an AACTA-award-winning producer, entrepreneur and CEO of Like A Photon Creative, one of Australia’s leading independent production companies. She has financed and produced 10 feature films, including The Pout-Pout Fish, a top-performing Australian box office hit in 2026, and has worked with global brands including Disney and The HISTORY Channel. Kristen has been recognised with major business and entrepreneurial awards for her leadership in the creative industries. 

With almost thirty years’ experience as a screenwriter and network executive, Andy Ryan is one of Australia’s most experienced and successful drama commissioners. As Head of Scripted – Streaming and Broadcast, Andy is responsible for the development and production of all scripted originals across Nine Entertainment, including streaming service Stan, linear broadcaster 9Network and BVOD streaming service 9Now. Prior to this expanded role, he had been Head of Drama for Nine since 2011. For Stan and 9Network, Andy has overseen some of Australia’s most iconic and internationally successful drama commissions, ranging from award winning series McLeods Daughters, Sea Patrol, Doctor Doctor, Love Child, House Husbands, Human Error and Scrublands, to event mini-series including the Underbelly franchise, House of Hancock, Beaconsfield, Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War, Halifax: Retribution, Wolf Creek and Bali 2002. Recent titles for Stan include hospital drama The F-Ward, crime thriller The Killings at Parrish Station, family movie Scales and international co-productions Careless and TwoBirds. 

One of Australia’s most experienced network television executives, Brett Sleigh has overseen the commissioning, development and production of over 40 scripted drama and comedy titles to date, amassing over 375+ individual episodes as Executive Producer. An RMIT Screenwriting graduate, Brett’s background includes four seasons in the script department of Blue Heelers and writing and performing in numerous comedy festivals, including the Edinburgh Fringe. Prior to joining the ABC, Brett was a Commissioning Editor at SBS Television. During his time at the ABC, Brett has executive produced many of the network’s most successful, acclaimed and awarded series including Please Like Me, Jack Irish, Utopia, Rosehaven and The Newsreader. Recent titles include Fisk, Return to Paradise, Goolagong and the upcoming Queensland filmed drama series, Dustfall. 

Sophia Mogford oversees content across Network 10 and Paramount+, including Dalliance, Two Years Later, Fake, One Night, Playing Gracie Darling and Sam Pang Tonight. Since joining Paramount ANZ in October 2022, Sophia has built an impressive portfolio featuring Ghosts Australia, Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race, Paper Dolls, the soon-to-be released Two Years Later, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen and upcoming titlesWho the Hell is Hamish? and Shaun Micallef’s Parents Evening. She also overseas premier formats such as The Amazing Race Australia andNinja Warrior and has pioneered innovative partnership productions including Betoota Advocate Presents andThe Inspired Unemployed Impractical Jokers. Prior to Paramount, Sophia served as Head of Entertainment at Eureka Productions, where she was the leading creative executive. Before her Australian career, Sophia spent 10 years in the UK, working across a diverse slate of projects and award-winning formats, including The Big Breakfast, TFI Friday, Big Brother, and BBC. Sophia has developed and managed projects across all major programming platforms and genres across the Australian and UK markets. Her credits span ratings hits and award winners across streaming services and free-to-air networks, including Hamish & Andy, Luxe Listings, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Little Big Shots, Drunk History, It Takes Two, Australia’s Got Talent, Holey Moley, the ARIA Awards, as well as collaboratively developing and creatively executing The Project. Throughout her extensive career, Sophia’s work has earned multiple prestigious accolades in the UK and Australia, including BAFTA, Telly Award, AACTA, and Logie wins.

Que Minh Luu is a screen executive and EP. As the inaugural Director of Content for Netflix ANZ, she led local commissioning and programming strategy, launching a critically and commercially successful slate that included Boy Swallows Universe, the International Emmy award-winning Heartbreak High, and Apple Cider Vinegar, among others. Before Netflix, she was an EP for the ABC’s scripted comedy and drama team, and in the independent sector across development and post-production. She develops and consults on scripted projects and content strategy, and the application of AI tools that strengthen the creative process in service of human creative vision. 

John Harvey is an acclaimed writer, director and producer across film and theatre, and Creative Director of Brown Cabs. As writer-director, his credits include Still We Rise (ABC – 2023 AIDC and ADG Best Documentary Awards), Off Country (NITV – 2022 ADG Best Documentary Award), Katele (Best Australian Short – FlickerFest & MIFF), Water (ABC) and Out of Range (SBS). As producer, he has worked on Spear (TIFF), Sand (The Turning, Berlinale) and The Warriors series (ABC TV). In theatre, he wrote The Return (Malthouse Theatre – 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award), Dear Son (Queensland Theatre) and Heart is a Wasteland (Malthouse/Ilbijerri/Yirra Yaakin), Black Ties (Ilbijerri, Asia TOPA, Sydney, Auckland festivals). He was commissioned by the 2026 Biennale of Sydney and Fondation Cartier with Walter Waia for the multi-channel installation The Heart of the Universe and commissioned by ACMI to create Canopy. He is a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow, a First Nations Writers Residency recipient (New York/Boston) and winner of the 2026 Creative Australia First Nations Established Artist of the Year Award. John serves on the Bangarra Dance Theatre board. 

Sam Lingham is the head writer and stage director for Melbourne based comedy group Aunty Donna. Aunty Donna has a hit podcast, a large online presence and tour globally. Sam has been the head writer and Executive Producer on the 2020 Netflix Original series Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun and the 2023 ABC series Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe. Aunty Donna’s latest show DREM sold out shows across Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland and North America. Sam works in development as an Executive Producer for the group’s production company, Haven’t You Done Well Productions. This has seen him work as an EP on series such as Westerners, The Worst That Could Happen and Finally A Show About Men! Sam is a director of the HYDW & Grouse House improvised studio series The Most Upsetting Guessing Game in the World.  

Takeshi Takada co-founded Alt.vfx in Brisbane in 2011. It has since grown into a creative technology company working across film and television VFX, advertising, and immersive content for expos and live experiences, with studios in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Alt has delivered work for global brands and platforms including Netflix, Toyota, Sony and Shiseido. It has won multiple Cannes Lions, the Premier of Queensland’s Export Award (2014, 2015 and 2024) and the national Australian Export Award for Creative Industries (2015). Takeshi grew up in Japan and moved to Brisbane for high school and university. He sees himself as a true Japan-Australia hybrid and a global citizen, and he has spent his career building bridges between Queensland and international markets. He is a Trade and Investment Queensland Global Connector, a Creative Advisor to the Lord Mayor of Brisbane and a member of the Griffith Film School Advisory Board. He is also a former Screen Queensland board member and was named Brisbane’s Multicultural Business Person of the Year in 2014.