The Writers' Studio Alumni

Over two decades, thousands of people from all walks of life and all levels of experience have completed our creative writing courses and benefited from the boutique services of The Writers' Studio.

Here is are some examples of people who have either done the courses or worked with Roland, following The Writers' Studio unique creative processes.

Dr George Miller: film maker, Happy Feet, Mad Max, Babe, Lorenzo's Oil, Witches of Eastwick

 


Carl Barron: professional comedian, writer, director. Carl's DVD, Carl Barron Live, is the highest selling stand-up comedy DVD in Australian history.

Mary Donaldson: Crown Princess of Denmark

LA Larkin: Author, her first novel, The Genesis Flaw, was published in 2010 and her second book, Thirst, will be released later this year by Murdoch Books.

Jacinta Tynan: Sky News Australia presenter and author of Good Man Hunting

Sam de Brito: author, Sun-Herald columnist, script editor, TV: White Collar Blue, Water Rats, Books: No Tattoos Before You're Thirty… What I'll Tell My Children?, The Lost Boys, Hello Darkness

Sharon Aris: author, It's My Party and I'll Knit if I Want To, Being Married

Yasmin Boland: journalist, author: Carole King is an Alien and All the Rage

Caroline Gerard: writer and producer of the 2007 feature film The Bet, starring Matthew Newton, Aden Young and Sibylla Budd

Claudia Karvan: actress, writer, producer, Spirited, Love My Way, Daybreakers, Paperback Hero

Rachel Ward: actor and director/writer of the 2009 feature film Beautiful Kate starring Sophie Lowe, Ben Mendelsohn, Maeve Dermody and Rachel Griffiths.

 

Julia Zemiro, radio host, actor, singer and Rockwiz presenter, The Wedge, Totally Full Frontal

Fiona Seres: scriptwriter, film and television Satisfaction, Tangle, Love My Way, The Surgeon

Krew Boylan: actor, writer, Wild Boys, All Saints, Rescue Special Ops 

Rachael Oakes-Ash: journalist/author, Good Girls Do Swallow, Anything She Can Do I Can Do Better

Jessica Hobbs: director, The Slap, Rake, Spirited, Tangle, All Saints, Love My Way

Matt Sherring: writer of the 2011 feature film Killer Elite starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro

Carolyn Baum: The Book Show/ABC 

Dr Elizabeth Farrelly: columnist, author and feature writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. Her most recent book is Blubberland.

Sandra Sully: journalist, Channel 10 television presenter

Scott Roberts: screenwriter and director of the 2002 feature film The Hard Word, starring Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths and Joel Edgerton

 

Ashley Hay: journalist/author, The Body in the Clouds, The Secret: The Strange Marriage of Annabelle Milbanke & Lord Byron, Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and Their Champions, Herbarium, Museum: The Macleays, Their Collections, and the Search for Order

 


Bianca Dye: radio announcer, NOVA, 20 to 1, The 7pm Project, Thank God You're Here

Phillip Hearnshaw: assistant director, Babe, Babe: Pig in the City, The Punisher, La Spagnola

 


Simmone Jade Mackinnon: actor, City Homicide, Cops: LAC, Rescue Special Ops, McLeod's Daughters, Baywatch

Hugh Riminton: CNN correspondent, Ten News presenter, Meet the Press, 6:30 with George Negus

Carla Coulson: author and photographer, Paris Tango, Italian Joy, Chasing a Dream

Erina Reddan: journalist, ABC foreign correspondent, author, non-fiction, Baby Daze, fiction, Water from the Moon, Lilia's Secret

Margaret Sixel: film editor, Happy Feet, Babe: Pig in the City

Anna Coren: reporter/presenter CNN International, Today Tonight

Meryl Tankard: Broadway choreographer, Tarzan the Musical 

Tony Barry: actor, Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, Australia, All Saints

 


Caroline Roessler: former managing editor of The Australian Women's Weekly and current editor of thehoopla.com.au

Emma Balfour: model/poet/author, Poems

Anthony Ackroyd: professional comedian

 
Mandy Newman: author: How to Say I Do: Make Your Civil Marriage Ceremony Your Own

Penny Robinson: author, Executive Producer of RPA

Ruth Ostrow: columnist, author, blogger and feature writer for The Australian

Kay Pavlou: director, Gangs of Oz, All Saints, Who Do You Think You Are?, McLeod's Daughters

Rob Pullan: journalist and author of seven books, including Guilty Secrets, Bob Hawke: A Portrait and Bob Ansett: An Autobiography

Kevin Rozzoli: former State MP and Speaker, author Gavel to Gavel - An Insider's View of Parliament

Rebecca Rocheford Davies: actor, writer, producer

John Mavety: award-winning director and writer, Behind Mansion Walls, Deadly Women, Earthpulse, Tropfest finalist

Sue MacKinnon: former Film Finance Corporation Investment Manager, Documentaries and producer Shark Island Productions

Rob Johnson: editor, journalist and author The Golden Age of the Argonauts and Boom-Boom! A Century of Australian Comedy

Lisa Forrest: radio and TV broadcaster/author Making the Most of It, DJ Max, Meg Banana, Boycott

Katerina Cosgrove: author, The Glass Heart

Peter McDonald: animator, Animal Logic, Happy Feet, Teen Wolf, Puss in Boots

Martyn Ives: documentary film maker, Emmy Award winner, National Geographic Taboo, How Beer Saved the World, Prototype This!, Monster Bug Wars, If We Had No Moon, The Complete Cosmos

 

Mark Gould: documentary film maker, producer, Tibet: Murder in the Snow, Rising Stars

Alec Morgan:Actor, DIrector, Writer, Hunt Angels, Beautiful Bondi, Our Century, Dusty Hearts, Lousy Little Sixpence

Helen O'Connor: Actor, Packed to the Rafters, Crownies, All Saints, Babe, Frauds, The Beast

Nick Lathouris: actor, dramaturg, writer, Kennedy Miller Productions 

Theresa Miller, television reporter, presenter and producer and author of Making Babies

Roxane Wilson: actor, Home and Away, City Homicide, Rescue Special Ops, Out of the Blue, The Alice, Stingers, Water Rats 

Dr Ruth Wajnryb: linguist, author, Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language and columnist, The Sydney Morning Herald

Matt Duffy: director, writer, producer, Guru Greg

Kimberley Chin Poy: author, Wednesday Sisters

Ollie Lind: author, Secret Samurai

Jess Black: author of 12 books in the Bindi Wildlife Adventure Series, three books in the RSPCA Animal Tales series and two books for the Bindi Behind the Scenes series.

Jamie Hilton: producer, Sleeping Beauty and The Waiting City. He was voted the Australian producer most worth watching at the Melbourne International Film Festival 37º South Market event in 2012.

 Wendy Fitzgerald: author, Bollywood Dreams

Gerry O' Sullivan: author, Flag of All Nations