RISING TALENT 2024: WRITERS

RISING TALENT 2024

The IF Rising Talent list for 2024 is made up of people we think will shift and lead our industry into the future. Some are newer faces, others have recently stepped into senior roles where they’re now making waves. We think you’ll want to work with all of them. We put this list together through a public call out and extensive insdustry outreach. This year, we had a staggering 692 names put forward. As always, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of talent that’s out there in Australia.

WRITERS

THOMAS WILSON-WHITE

Thomas Wilson-White is a director and screenwriter. His TV writing credits include both seasons of Netflix’s Heartbreak High and Paramount+’s Paper Dolls. Wilson White’s episode of Heartbreak High, ‘Bin Chicken’ was shortlisted for the Betty Roland Prize in Scriptwriting at the 2023 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Wilson-White is currently writing his second feature film Wildflowers with the support of Screen Australia and script editor Anna Seifert-Speck (Ammonite, God’s Own Country), and adapting a best-selling novel for television.

His 2021 debut feature The Greenhouse screened at BFI Flare and Frameline, won Best Direction in a Feature Film (budget under $1m) at the 2021 Australian Directors’ Guild Awards and was acquired by Netflix.

Wilson-White is the creator of autobiographical TV series Sick to Death, whose development has been supported by Screen Australia and Screen NSW, in collaboration with Rhapsody Films. He is a graduate of the VCA and AFTRS, and is represented in Australia by Mollison Keightley Management and Anonymous Content in the US.

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ALISTAIR BALDWIN

Alistair Baldwin is a writer, director and comedian. His credits include writing the episode ‘Bound’ for SBS’s AACTA-nominated anthology Erotic Stories, as well as staff writing on ABC’s The Weekly, Hard Quiz, and Get Krack!n (the latter of which he also stars in as overworked personal assistant Matthew).

Badlwin served as head writer for Live & Proud, the official global broadcast of the Sydney WorldPride Opening Concert, and was both head writer and host of ABC’s disability arts special ReFrame 2022.

His debut play Telethon Kid premiered at Malthouse Theatre in 2023, and was shortlisted for the Griffin Award and Highly Commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

Baldwin made his directorial debut with the second episode of SBS’s Latecomers. He has provided freelance development services on a range of projects, including Amazon’s Deadloch and ABC’s upcoming Return To Paradise.

He is currently co-writing a feature adaptation 45+47 Stella Street with regular collaborator Vidya Rajan and development support from Screen Australia. He is repped by Creative Representation.

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RA CHAPMAN

Ra Chapman is a Korean-Australian playwright, screenwriter and actor. She is the creator, writer, star and producer of upcoming ABC comedy White Fever, currently in postproduction and due to air this year.

Chapman also wrote and starred in a episode of SBS’s Night Bloomers, for which she has been nominated for an AWGIE Award. Her script Jane the Waegukin was the runner up for the Australian Writers’ Guild Monte Miller Award (long-form) in 2022.

Chapman is an alumni of the Besen Writers Group and was awarded the 2018 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Playwright Fellowship. Her play KBox, won the 2021 Patrick White Playwright Award.

She recently co-wrote Because The Night (a Hamlet adaptation) for the Malthouse Theatre, and is currently developing various projects for stage and screen. She is under commission by the Malthouse Theatre, where she is also an artist in residence.

On screen, Chapman is known for her role as Kim Chang on Wentworth, and won an IF Award for Best Actress in 2011 for her role in David Williamson’s Face to Face. Chapman is repped by Cameron’s Management.

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BOYD QUAKAWOOT

Boyd Quakawoot is a South Sea Islander and a man of Indigenous descent from Mackay in North Queensland who identifies with the Yawibara people.

In 2019-2020, Quakawoot wrote on season four of the ABC’s Black Comedy. His first one-hour series credit was on Stan’s Black Snow, followed by an episode of the second season of Troppo for the ABC. He is also the writer of upcoming feature film Windcatcher, a Stan Original directed by Tanith Glynn-Maloney and starring Jessica Mauboy, Kelton Pell and Pia Miranda.

Quakawoot is in development on horror feature Uncle, and a comedy series, Aunty Phil & Uncle Dorothea, based on his own eccentric extended family. Boyd was shortlisted for the Australian Writers’ Guild Monte Miller Award in 2020 with script Dawg and the Stonefish and shortlisted twice for the David Unaipon Award at the Queensland Literary Awards. He is repped by RGM.

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TIG TERERA

Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Australia, Tig Terera is the creator, writer and set-up director of Swift Street, set to premiere on SBS this year. A crime drama, Swift Street follows dysfunctional father-daughter duo Elsie and Robert and the mending of their fractured relationship after they team up to protect Robert from a ruthless crime boss. Prior to his work in television, Terera created several short films, including Chenge, Solibet, Charlotte and Tinashé, the latter of which won a Special Mention award at the 2022 Berlinale in the Generation section and screened at Sydney Film Festival as a finalist in the Dendy Awards.

Terara’s resume also spans TVC’s, music videos and film projects that he filmed in London, Paris and Singapore. He is repped by RGM.