Leadership
Dan Nixon
Founding Director/Creative Director
(he/him): Dan is a storyteller, writer, producer and educator. He is the founding and creative director of Story Studios Australia/MYWS. Dan has been imagining characters, inventing worlds and telling stories since he could talk. As a writer his work spans the page, the stage and the screen, but it’s creating stories for young people and families where he feels most at home. Story Studios Australia was born out of Dan’s desire to foster a storytelling community and create spaces for stories to flourish. Dan is also creative producer and company director of Pirate Size Productions, a production company creating content for children, young people and families. Dan and the Pirate Size crew are currently developing projects alongside some of the best broadcasters and production companies in the world. Dan has a Masters in Screenwriting from the Victorian College of the Arts and has gone on to become a screenwriting lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts and RMIT. Equally obsessed with stories as he is with mountains, Dan’s dream is to live and write beside a fire, atop a peak, and ski whenever he wants.
Bonnie McRae
Creative Director
A scriptwriter, author & journalist, Bonnie is passionate about writing truth in the form of fiction and is
interested in the role stories play in connecting us to ourselves and the world. Bonnie has written and directed two short films and was nominated for the 2021 Monte Miller Award for her pilot screenplay, Kinked. Her short film, Unearthed, has been screened and shortlisted at local and international festivals. She is currently working on a novel and continues to been involved in a number of television writers rooms and screen projects. Bonnie has also written a wealth of plays that have been performed by Stage School Australia. Back in the coastal country town where she grew up, Bonnie worked as a cadet journalist for the South Gippsland Sentinel Times – Gippsland’s widest circulating newspaper, before going on to study journalism at RMIT University.
Hannah Nixon
Managing Director
(she/her): Hannah is a former speech pathologist and bookseller and the Managing Director of Story Studios Australia. With a deep love of language and storytelling, she oversees the studio’s direction, operations, and growth, fostering a welcoming and vibrant community for writers of all stripes.
An obsessive and omnivorous reader, Hannah’s greatest joys include reading books with her kids—and hiding from her kids to read books. In her free time, she can be found hunting for treasures in the op-shop or cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Hannah loves nothing more than to talk books, if you indulge her, she might just recommend your next great read!
Katherine Renda
Studio Manager
(she/her): Katherine is a passionate screenwriter whose creativity thrives on exploring complex characters navigating extraordinary circumstances. An RMIT screenwriting graduate, her work delves into themes of intrigue, witty heroics, quirky adventures, and profound self-discovery, always aiming to capture the essence of heartfelt storytelling—when she’s not devouring chocolate, worrying about things out of her control, and accumulating a treasure trove of useless celebrity trivia.
Matthew Kazacos
Adult Programs Coordinator
(he/him): Matt was raised on Rupert Bear and the books of A.A. Milne, Morris Gleitzman and Enid Blyton. As a result, he loves writing light fantasy, escapist stories for kids and teens. Between his writing, Matt teaches screenwriting at VCA and co-hosts a movie podcast called Tripod.
Story and Writing Mentors
Adam Bigum
(he/him): Adam is a children’s television writer and producer who specialises in comedy. He has written for shows such as: ‘Andrew the Big BIG Unicorn’, ‘Good Game: Spawn Point’, ‘Fizzy and Suds’, and ‘Soundtrack to Our Teenage Zombie Apocalypse’. He also plays in the space of social media content; his last batch of animated shorts for the ABC garnered over 125 million views on Tiktok and YouTube. Adam nerds out on narrative structure, could talk all day about character, and takes comedy WAY too seriously. He is also a wannabe illustrator and hopes to publish his first kid’s chapter very book soon. If you see Adam, kindly tell him to “hurry up!”
Lachlan Rose
Lachy is a singer/ songwriter and a film composer who loves to tell story through sound. Known principally as the lead singer of the “kaleidoscopic indie-rock” band Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird, Lachy appreciates any artistic expression that is colourful, otherworldly and authentic.
Silver Fitzgerald
Graduating from VCA with a degree in screenwriting, you can usually find Sil watching a film or writing their first novel. Sil’s work has been published in independent literary magazines such as Voiceworks, Farrago, The Suburban Review and The West Australian, and was longlisted for the Best Australian Yarn in 2023.
Julia Ahearne
(she/her): Jules studied Creative Writing and Literature & Professional Writing and Editing and is now a story mentor and copywriter. She loves to read creative non-fiction, fantasy, horror and realism. You’ll catch her hosting Words & Wine nights at the studio and coming up with weird little writing prompts for all ages.
Jayden Nikolic
(he/him): Don’t let the beard fool you, Jayden is a big kid who loves comics, cartoons and cats. He predominantly writes for animated kids tv and in his spare time is one half of the Angry Screenwriters Podcast, where they try to make movies better. Jayden believes that Goosebumps is the most influential novel series of all time and will argue with anyone who claims otherwise.
Katherine Atkins
A loyal worshiper of her regal hound Benjamin, Katherine finds time to scribble the humour and pain of life between walkies and devotedly staring into his perfect eyes.
Fabian Lapham
(he/him): Fabian likes to write sci-fi, fantasy & comedy, and has written a hodgepodge of stuff for the internet, comics, and the screen. He loves any story where a character is on a log that’s floating towards a waterfall. A+ trope.
Kirsty Wilson
Kirsty has tried her hand at all kinds of writing over the years—she’s studied Journalism, Theatre, and more recently, Film and TV. Her primary focus is screenwriting and directing, where she loves weaving narratives that tug at the heartstrings. Kirsty knew she had mastered emotional manipulation when she had her family and friends reaching for the tissues at her latest short film screening.
Miso Bell
Miso enjoys plotting elaborate schemes, fixing up their bowler hat while exclaiming ‘daw, I dunno boss’ and carrying long panes of glass across busy intersections. But most of all, they love writing silly stories that have a lot heart. You can find their work in Overland, Westerly Magazine and Voiceworks among others. In 2023 they won second place in the nationally acclaimed Neilma Sidney Short Fiction Prize. They are a Victorian RAW comedy state finalist and perform regularly at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Elliot Seidel
(he/him): After starting out on a slightly clunky ML300 typewriter, Elliot is now a genre writer who tells stories to find your heart and make it beat. He has taught screenwriting with the VCA and is a script-assessor for Coverfly and a qualified secondary teacher. He loves any high-concept story with a distinct, unique hook.
Henry Silvey
When he isn’t following trails of breadcrumbs down the street, Henry enjoys going to the cinema, working on his DJing skills and practicing his British accents. He has an undergraduate degree in Writing from the University of Queensland and is a current Masters of Screenwriting student at the Victorian College of Arts. He loves to write stories that are as funny as they are surreal, and has dreams of writing the next generation’s Napoleon Dynamite.
Natasha Hertanto
Natasha is a Chinese-Indonesian writer, educator, and youth advocate based in Naarm. Her personal essays and cultural commentary can be found on Kill Your Darlings, ABC, Archer, and short fiction in the anthologies Everything All At Once and New Australian Fiction 2023. She is currently drafting her debut novel, a young adult historical fantasy about the daughter of a gang-lord in 1960s Jogjakarta. She also teaches at the University of Melbourne.
Matt Bird
Matt is a Film & Television Honours graduate of Swinburne University. His first feature script ‘ANALLA’ is being produced by SunJive Studios Australia, which he’s co-written with his best friend. Matt spends most of his time banging away at a keyboard and imagining hypothetical scenarios that almost always involve Godzilla fighting other giant monsters.
Troy Harwood
Troy regularly escapes his crypt to manically write and dissect stories of the freaky, weird and wonderful variety — loving to experiment with new and daring ideas atop the fascinating canvas that is human emotion. He has studied Screenwriting at RMIT, written for the Australian Book Review, and self-published his debut historical, science-fiction novel, ‘I Found You’. Just don’t tell the gravedigger he keeps escaping — the only thing he hates more than the dead walking is when they become some weird artist!
Guy Webster
Guy is a dramaturg, theatre critic and writer living on unceded Wurundjeri land. Their work has been published by Overland, Metro Magazine, Kill Your Darlings, and The Conversation. They are a regular contributor to Time Out Melbourne, Limelight Arts Journal, Australian Arts Review, Australian Book Review and The Age. They are currently completing their PhD at the University of Melbourne where they tutor in English and Theatre Studies. Last year they began a bi-monthly newsletter, ‘This is not a review…’, intended to experiment with theatre reviewing as a form.
Enya Daly
Enya Daly (she/her) is an actor, dramaturg and teaching artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (Master of Theatre- Dramaturgy) and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Bachelor of Fine Arts- Acting).
Acting credits include Spring Awakening (Soundworks), Realish (Melbourne Theatre Company- Cybec Electric), Kirk’s Backyard (Malthouse Theatre- development cast), That Was Friday and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (House of Sand), national tours of The Gruffalo’s Child and Spot- Live on Stage (CDP), and The Moors (Siren Theatre).
Enya has worked with Theatre Works’ She Writes Collective, Melbourne Writers Theatre’s Page to Stage program and Antipodes Winter Lab to develop the works of emerging and established playwrights. She also regularly freelances as a new writing & production dramaturg in Melbourne’s independent theatre scene.
Enya is Studio Host at Story Studios Australia, Lecturer in Movement at JMC Academy, an Expert Teacher at Drama Victoria and a NIDA Open Teaching Artist.
Katarina Tobin-Spall
Katarina is a passionate writer and nerd with a love for all things history, fantasy and comedy. In 2024, after 2 years of working and writing on various screen and media projects, she graduated with the Advanced Diploma in Professional Screenwriting. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing at RMIT, while continuing to freelance script edit. Katarina spends her spare time trying (and failing) to win at trivia, falling down historical rabbit holes and looking at pretty trees.
Lachlan Bray
Lachlan is a playwright, musician and teaching artist living on Wurundjeri country in Melbourne. He has written for independent theatre, youth ensembles and experimental projects in Australia and the US. He is currently co-writing his first screenplay for a full length feature film.
Our Adult Programs Are Hosted By Professional Authors And Writers
Previous Hosts And Guests Include:
- Joel McKerrow
- Nick Place
- Ren Alessandra
- Amie Kaufman
- Adam Bigum
- Scott Stuart
Ahoy there!
Did you know that MWYS Owner & Director, Dan Nixon, is also a Director at Pirate Size Productions? And many of the mentors at Melbourne Young Writers’ Studio write for Pirate Size Projects, such as Pencil Pals! Which you can watch on ABC iView…
Pencil Pals!
Streaming on ABC iView, each episode of Pencil Pals was written by an MWYS Story Mentor! Pencil Pals follows the adventures of Bee, Dinosaur, Cockatoo and Alien as they learn about language, literacy and storytelling!
“As a working writer in the industry I have found joining the Melbourne Young Writers Studio team to be immensely valuable. Getting the opportunity to think about my own writing processes and teaching them to others has allowed me to reflect on my own methods and improve on them moving forward. Working with MYWS has also introduced me to a wide array of very bright, young talented creatives and their unique perspectives. With the talent coming through MYWS it is very clear the future is bright for creative writing in Australia.”