Shiyan Zheng is a Chinese-Australian filmmaker and playwright from Western Sydney.

In 2015, Shiyan co-wrote the sci-fi film Terminus, released globally by Netflix.  Also, he co-wrote the multi-award-winning web-series Airlock.

In 2018, Shiyan produced the art performance Women in Shadow, for the Sherman Centre for Culture & Ideas at the Powerhouse Museum.

In 2022, Shiyan worked as a post-story consultant for Dev Patel’s Monkey Man. Also, Shiyan wrote the SBS comedy web-series Meet the Changs and its sequel, Meet Leila and Ziad. In 2023, he served as script editor for the multi-award-winning short film, Sweet Juices.

Shiyan has several TV series and films in development.  He is the co-creator of The Servant, a Screen Australia and Screen NSW-funded crime drama with Aquarius Films.  He is also in pre-production for his thriller feature film Dissonance.

He is currently developing his Create NSW-funded play Captain, with National Theatre of Parramatta.

Michele Gould is a multidisciplinary Thai-Australian storyteller inspired by the diverse heroes of today. Graduating with a Bachelor’s in Biomedical Science, she debuted in playwriting with Intersection: Undercurrent and received scholarships for ATYP’s ‘National Studio’ and ‘Fresh Ink’ mentorship playwriting programs.

Michele premiered her first original musical PASSING in 2021 and then staged her new queer punk-rock musical 107 at The Blue Room Theatre in 2022. Beyond the stage, she’s an independently published fantasy author, with her debut novel, Tapestries of a Kingdom. When not busy trying to take on the world, you can find her playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Mark Bolotin, please see full bio under ‘About the Director’

Mark Bolotin is an award-winning theatre director, writer and multimedia artist, as well as the artistic director of Synarcade Audio-Visuals and co-founder of the leading New York art technology company Hyphen Hub. Bolotin has written and directed large-scale multimedia work across the world including the interactive theatre experience
Emergence: Build Your Own Being (Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Arts House, Canberra Street Theatre), twelve-headed multimedia rock opera The Lumiphonic Choir (3LD New York, SXSW, Burning Man, MOMA Zagreb) and multimedia show ETC: Experiments in Theatre and Cinema (National Theatre of Parramatta).

Bolotin has a Masters of Directing from NIDA and has showcased his multimedia work at TEDxSydney, served as Arts Co-Director for New York City’s inaugural Creative Tech Week 2016, and been invited as a delegate for the Future Innovators Summit at Ars Electronica, Austria.

Hilary Bell writes for stage, radio, screen and musical theatre. Hilary’s plays have been produced nationally by Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Griffin Theatre, Black Swan, Deckchair, La Boite, NORPA, the National Theatre of Parramatta, Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, Vitalstatistix and the Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Internationally, she’s been produced by Atlantic and Steppenwolf (USA) and The National’s Connections programme (UK).

These plays include Splinter, Fortune, The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch, The Falls, Memmie Le Blanc, The Red Balloon, The White Divers of Broome, Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me, The Mysteries: Genesis (with Lally Katz) and adaptations of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Moliere’s The Hypochondriac, and Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors.

She was associate writer on Paul Capsis’ play, Angela’s Kitchen, which won Best New Australian Work at the Helpmann Awards 2010.

Hilary is a graduate of the Juilliard Playwrights’ Studio, NIDA, and AFTRS. She was the 2003-2004 Tennessee Williams Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of the South Tennessee, and in 2013 the Patrick White Playwriting Fellow at STC.