Endemol Shine Australia: Early Career Writers Program recipients

The recipients of the Endemol Shine Australia Early Career Writers Program are (pictured L-R) Slade Camilleri, Sally Alrich-Smythe, Becki Bouchier and Luke Agius.

A collaboration between Endemol Shine Australia and Screen Australia, and supported by the Australian Writers’ Guild, the initiative provides high-level training for early to mid-career Australian writers who have the potential for a strong career trajectory in scripted episodic storytelling.

Over eight weeks the four emerging writers will be immersed in all facets of the Endemol Shine Australia script department.

Endemol Shine Australia Head of Scripted Sara Richardson said: “The applications received were outstanding, and these four writers exemplary. It is a privilege to be able to run this program again with the support of Screen Australia. Endemol Shine Australia is excited to guide and mentor them, as well as encourage their learning and professional development.

“They are this industry’s future,” she continued.

Screen Australia Head of Development Bobby Romia said: “We are thrilled to see Luke, Sally, Becki and Slade embark on this exciting next step in their careers. The Early Career Writers Program offers them the perfect platform to refine their craft and open doors to new opportunities. These four recipients bring with them a strong appetite to learn and a passion to create a new slate of stories for the next generation, and I can’t wait to see what they achieve.”

Luke Agius
With a talent for creating captivating and inspiring stories, Luke’s unique perspective was shaped by his upbringing in Western Sydney with a Maltese father and First Nations mother. He began his filmmaking career at age 12 and made a plethora of films, eventually culminating his skills towards eventually studying Media Arts Production at the University of Technology Sydney. He has since made several award-winning short films, music videos, corporate content for large brands such as Google, and, prior to turning 23, directed his first feature film The Ferryman, which is now available on Amazon Prime. Luke was also a writer and director behind the Screen Australia short-form webseries Go Figure, which has accumulated in over 100k views across socials. With a passion for telling meaningful stories that resonate with audiences, Luke’s second feature The Undesirables is currently in post-production.

Sally Alrich-Smythe
After studying Creative Writing at the University of Technology Sydney, Sally trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 2016 for Musical Theatre, and later returned there to do her Master of Fine Arts: Writing for Performance in 2018. Sally is currently a regular script writer on Home and Away, where she previously worked as a Senior Storyliner. In 2023, Sally’s play Wavelength won the Australian Theatre Festival NYC New Play Award, and was read to a sold out audience at Theatre Row in October of the same year. Her TV pilot script Dirty Road was both a finalist and highly commended for the Australian Writer’s Guild’s Monte Miller Award 2021 and is currently under development as an eight-part television series with CJZ Productions. In 2021, Sally was a Fresh Ink Writer Resident at The Australian Theatre for Young People, where she also worked as an educator and divisor for the theatre maker workshops. Her produced playwriting credits include The Stargazers Project (Periscope Productions/Melbourne Council of the Arts, 2020), and Homesick (The Old 505, 2019). Most recently, Sally completed a six-week professional script development placement with ScriptedInk and Studio Canal/StudioPlus as a Development and Acquisitions Intern.

Becki Bouchier
Becki is a Singaporean-Australian screenwriter and director whose work explores the challenges faced by women, with a focus on mental health and gender roles. Becki was nominated for an Australian Writers’ Guild AWGIE Award and an Australian Directors’ Guild Award for her short film Snapshot, which had its world premiere at Austin Film Festival. In 2022, she was a recipient of the SBS Emerging Writers’ Incubator and spent 12 months working as staff writer at production company Sweetshop and Green. Becki’s dark comedy/drama pilot script Jelly was longlisted for the AWG’s Emerging Writers’ Award. Her two other television pilot screenplays Blackout and Bad Timing have been invited to the AWG’s prestigious Pathways showcase, and her romantic-comedy feature screenplay Modern Day Romance was longlisted for both the Monte Miller and John Hinde Awards. In 2019, Becki made her first foray into theatre, writing and directing the play Chasing Yesterday which performed to a sold-out season at the Melbourne Fringe. Becki has been selected for the AWG’s First Break program and has a Master of Film and Television (Narrative) from the Victorian College of the Arts.

Slade Camiller
Slade Camilleri is a screenwriter and script editor from Melbourne, Australia. Having obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting) in 2017 from the Victorian College of the Arts, Slade has gone on to work as a production assistant on a number of films, such as Darklands and The Speedway Murders. In early 2023, Slade was brought on to the relaunch of Neighbours, where he spent a year as the senior script coordinator, before stepping into his current role of trainee script editor/storyliner, and writer of six episodes.

The Early Career Writers Program is presented by Screen Australia in collaboration with Endemol Shine Australia with industry partner Australian Writers’ Guild.