Kimberley Wells of Tumbi Umbi is one of 13 creatives selected from NSW and Queensland for Screenworks’ 2023 Career Pathways Programs.
Participants in the three programs — Inside the Writers Room, Director Pathways Program and Regional Producer Elevator Program —will receive invaluable support and guidance over the next 12 months from some of Australia’s most respected writers, directors and producers.
Wells, who has been selected for the Inside the Writers Room program, will work with EQ Media to hone her skills.
Now 33, Wells has been writing stories, songs and poems for as long as she can remember.
“I remember I wrote my first play in Grade Six,” she said.
“It was a courtroom drama – but most of the writing I have done since has been in the field of comedy.”
Moving to the Central Coast with her family from Sydney when she was 13, Wells attended Lisarow High School and spent her teenage years in the region.
She has since lived in Dublin and Chicago and for the past 10 years in Canada, where she had various successes in the field of writing.
“I went to Canada on a working holiday and ended up staying 10 years,” she said.
Wells has produced, directed and written a few short films and won several awards.
She has written sketches for live shows and last year worked on a web series which was streamed.
She is currently writing another series in collaboration with a friend in Canada, with the ultimate aim of working as a full-time professional screenwriter for film and TV, preferably in the field of comedy.
“I’ve always wanted to write for the screen and TV has become a particular interest over the past five years,” she said.
Although working in an unassociated field, Wells writes every day and is hopeful the Screenworks program will open doors into the writing industry.
“There was quite an application process, where I had to submit a script sample and answer career questions such as what I have achieved so far as a writer,” she said.
She is excited to be undertaking the Screenworks program some time this year.
“They place emerging writers in regional and rural areas with a company which has a TV show in production,” she said.
“Your job is to observe a professional writers’ room for a week, seeing how the writers break down episodes, develop characters and decide where certain things will happen in the story.”
Following that, there will be professional development, feedback and support.
“It’s all about seeing how the professionals do it, meeting like-minded peers and hopefully breaking into the industry,” she said.
Wells does not yet know which TV show she will be observing.
“It all depends on what is in production when the program gets underway,” she said.
Screenworks CEO Ken Crouch said the Career Pathways Programs has now become one of the organisation’s most important annual pinnacle programs thanks to the support of “multiple production companies, mentors, industry guilds and state funding agencies”.
“All participants selected for these programs are talented and demonstrate great potential,” he said.
“Some of the past alumni have made their marks within the national and international industry, and I’m excited to see what the 2023 cohort will achieve in the future.”
Expanded to include regional Queensland for the first time, this year’s Career Pathways Programs are funded by Screen Queensland and Screen NSW with support from Fremantle Media.
Inside the Writers Room opportunities are being provided by Goalpost Pictures, Fremantle Media, EQ Media, Tony Ayres Productions and Wooden Horse.
The Director Pathways Program is supported by the Australian Directors’ Guild, with Screen Producers Australia supporting the Regional Producer Elevator Program.
The selection panels for the programs comprised representatives from program partners, industry bodies, guilds, and independent assessors.
Terry Collins