L to R top row: Greta Nash, Matthew Bon, Penny Greenhalgh, Gemma Bird Matheson, Molly Daniels. L to R bottom row: Hannah Samuel, Serah Nathan, Diana Vu, Photo by Sarah Chavdaroska
An Australian-first talent escalation initiative designed by VicScreen to give emerging and mid-career television writers unparallelled writers' room access and craft-building mentorship is underway.
Originate Series, a multi-faceted development program replicates the experience and processes of working in a professional writers' room, while also providing intensive skills development, and industry exposure that delivers practical, creative, and business guidance to prepare participants for a career in television.
Whereas most development initiatives are conducted over a limited period with the aim of generating new IP, the objective of Originate Series is to make the participants themselves the project. The program launched in September 2023 and spans 24-months.
VicScreen CEO Caroline Pitcher said,
"This trailblazing Originate initiative works to facilitate skills growth and career advancement. This is what motivates us to not only cultivate the most whip-smart, industry savvy cohort of television writers this country has to offer but also enrich Victoria's television production ecosystem for years to come."
The successful participants of the Originate Series are:
- Gemma Bird Matheson
- Hannah Samuel
- Molly Daniels
- Penny Greenhalgh
- Matthew Bon
- Diane Vu
- Greta Nash
- Serah Nathan
Since they were selected from over 150 applications, the eight participants have completed an eight-month Writing for Television program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where they generated two original pilot scripts while attending weekly lectures and workshops.
In the last 6 months, the cohort engaged in a series of paid writers' rooms, assisting in the creation of four new primetime series from established television creators and production companies including Michael Lucas/Werner Film Productions, Tony Ayres Company, Elise McCredie/Easy Tiger Productions, and showrunner, David Hannam.
Creator of The Newsreader Michael Lucas said,
"Time in writers' rooms is a vanishingly rare and valuable resource, especially for emerging writers. So, I loved the strong, practical writers' room focus of this program and was thrilled to get involved. And ultimately, the participants were so smart, agile, open minded and creative, I got just as much out of the experience as they did. I genuinely look forward to collaborating with them in future."
Along the way, participants attended the inaugural Future Vision conference in Melbourne and have been offered an array of learning opportunities including lectures from industry leaders like showrunner, Hannah Carroll Chapman, and program mentor Clea Frost, a story editor, writer, producer, and former development executive.
Creator of Heartbreak High Hannah Carroll Chapman said,
"Programs like Originate Series are vital in helping to train the next generation of screenwriters in this country. As rooms become smaller and opportunities on long-running shows become rarer, it's critical that we are able to immerse our future showrunners in these kinds of experiences so they can enrich our industry and continue to keep us competing on a global scale, telling our stories."
Next, the participants will continue refining their original scripts while undertaking bespoke industry placements to further develop their skills and broaden their networks.
Originate Series expands on VicScreen's existing Originate Factual, Originate Features and Originate Games programs – which are amplifying new voices and new ideas from diverse Victorian screen talent.
Victorian Minister for Creative Industries, Minister Brooks said,
"Through the VicScreen strategy the Victorian Government is working to ensure our state is recognised as a global screen powerhouse. To achieve this, we're backing the screen ecosystem at all levels, from targeted career development initiatives like Originate, to major projects that create hundreds of job opportunities. I can't wait to see, and watch, where the Originate Series participants take us."
Originate Series Participant Biographies
Gemma Bird Matheson
Gemma is an AWGIE and AACTA nominated writer and actor who has worked across numerous television series for ABC, Nickelodeon and Amazon. She has found success writing for children's television and web-series and has worked across multiple comedy writers' rooms for various companies. Having recently received development funding for her comedy-horror feature Love Is Dead, Gemma is now looking to expand into writing for her favourite genre: horror.
Hannah Samuel
Hannah is a Naarm/Melbourne based writer and has written on Bay of Fires S2 and numerous children's TV series. She is currently writing for an adult comedy drama series (Stan) and a YA series (Netflix). Hannah is drawn to the type of dark comedy that punches you in the guts while you cry from laughing. Her writing is a celebration of POC joy, bad behaviour and complicated characters who are the architects of their own demise (but lack any self-awareness).
Molly Daniels
Molly loves writing hard comedy and telling joyful, uplifting stories, and her comedy credits include Netflix's The InBESTigators and ABC's You're Skitting Me. Molly has created, written, and starred in multiple Screen Australia-funded web series such as Celebration Nation and Party of the Century, as well as the latter's Creative Victoria-funded follow-up Funeral of the Century. She's also a writer and presenter on the award-winning ABC children's podcast, Short & Curly, and has starred in programs like Ronny Chieng: International Student and Tomorrow When the War Began.
Penny Greenhalgh
Penny is an award-winning writer and performer. She has written extensively for sketch, light entertainment and kids TV shows, toured internationally as a comedian, and most recently worked as a producer-director on The Art Of... (ABC). Having completed the drama strand of the UCLA professional program in writing for TV, Penny is looking forward to integrating her drama and comedy expertise and working on long-form narrative projects.
Matthew Bon
Matthew is an AWGIE-nominated writer who began his career on drama serial Neighbours and has since worked on the teen-focused spin-off Erinsborough High, Nickelodeon's Rock Island Mysteries, and ABC children's series Turn Up the Volume, Planet Lulin and Beep & Mort. He likes to dabble in a far-reaching range of genres, including YA and teen drama, contemporary relationship dramas, crime and thrillers, and sci-fi and world-building projects.
Diane Vu
Diane is a Screenwriter by day, multi-hyphenate for pay. Drawn to social satire and existential tragicomedy, her work explores flawed characters grappling with mental health issues, class conflict and dysfunctional families. Her half-hour pilot Dirty Deep Down was a finalist in the Humanitas David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Awards and her co-written shorts Pairing, Clown and Mark Targets have screened at Melbourne International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Shorts Fest, SXSW Sydney and SBS on Demand.
Greta Nash
Greta (they/she) is a Melbourne-based filmmaker and one-third of GGG Films. Greta started out creating honest, nuanced stories about contemporary adolescence, and continues their career with the belief that the coming-of-age genre applies to every stage of life. Greta has received numerous rounds of development funding from Screen Tasmania to write their first feature screenplay School Camp and wrote and directed the short films Two Piece (Tropfest Winner 2018), Locker Room (Official Selection MIFF 2017, Flickerfest REBEL8 Award 2018) and Heart Throb (Official Selection Flickerfest 2024, Best Australian Film at Setting Sun Film Festival 2024).
Serah Nathan
Serah writes dry, satirical comedy that delves into loneliness and consumerism, drawing on her lived experiences growing up as the weird biracial kid in the western suburbs. With a background in TV production and script coordination, she brings a practical edge to her storytelling. Serah has independently produced stage and screen work, including the sold-out play Babes and Beer and web series Uncertain Times, commissioned by Multicultural Arts Victoria and the City of Brimbank.
