WHO’S WHO IN EQUITY’S 2021 SCREEN DIVERSITY SHOWCASE: MEET THE WRITERS
The performers, writers and directors who will participate in the 2021 Screen Diversity Showcase have been selected by a series of independent industry judging panels from an impressive field of more than 450 applicants. The showcase is a chance for emerging talent to be uncovered, mentored, nurtured and exposed to those who make decisions about what ends up on our screens. The selected creatives will collaborate on five distinct projects, all to be filmed as five-minute proofs of concept. The projects are Small World, If Wishes Were Horses, Bast, Radical Honesty and Biting Dust.
Martine Delaney (If Wishes Were Horses)
Over the past 15 to 20 years, Martine Delaney has been an LGBTIQ+ advocate, stand-up comic, briefly dead, ghost-tour guide, book in a human library and a Greens Federal Election candidate − all while, with her partner, raising a child abandoned as a baby at their home 13 years ago.
Three years ago, frustrated by a lack of employers wanting an outspoken transgender employee, Martine began writing a feature film. It was optioned and is in slow development. This led to inclusion in Screen Australia’s inaugural Developing the Developer initiative and, more recently, to work with Hobart’s Roar Film on a range of documentary, educational and drama projects.
Martine’s current slate includes a documentary feature in pre-production with Roar, a drama series in development with Hoodlum, a comedy series with Beyond Entertainment and two optioned features on pause. She is currently writing an episode for season two of an ABC/Hulu-commissioned kids’ drama from Epic Films.
Rafeif Ismail (Bast)
Rafeif Ismail is an award-winning emerging multilingual Sudanese storyteller and editor based in Boorloo, WA (colonially known as Perth). Rafeif’s work has been published in anthologies and literary magazines across Australia and translated internationally, with a debut novel forthcoming. Deeply committed to creating diverse works, spaces and ethical storytelling, Rafeif is the current managing director of Djed Press, co-editor of Unlimited Futures: Speculative, Visionary Blak+Black Fiction (Fremantle Press & Djed Press, 2022).
“Like every aspect of my life, my writing is motivated by the need to see, be in, and create spaces that help explore the everyday systems of oppressive power we live in and challenge them. I write while honouring the works of those before and alongside me and acknowledging that I am contributing a letter (possibly a word if I’m lucky!) to tremendous and ongoing work towards more just worlds. Basically, I write to Right and Riot.”
Rafeif participated in the 2019 AFTRS Talent Camp (WA) and 2020 AFTRS National Talent Camp. Rafeif is currently developing a proof of concept for her 10x1 speculative fiction series BAST through the 2021 Equity Foundation Screen Diversity Showcase. Rafeif watched Black Panther 28 times in cinema and can talk Doctor Who trivia with the best of them. When not writing, Rafeif works in health promotion.
Suren Jayemanne (Radical Honesty)
Suren is an Australian comedian with Sri Lankan heritage. In 2014, he was touted as one of the best new comics in the country when he was selected for Melbourne Comedy Festival’s prestigious The Comedy Zone showcase. The following year, Suren made his solo debut at both the Melbourne and Sydney Comedy Festivals. He has appeared on ABC TV’s Comedy Up Late and Tonightly with Tom Ballard, and been heard on Triple J and ABC Radio.
In 2018, Suren’s first TV special aired as part of the ABC’s Comedy Next Gen series. That same year, he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Suren’s comedy, which explores multiculturalism, race and class in contemporary Australia, has been praised by critics as insightful and on point, engaging and thought-provoking.
“I think it’s great that there’s a push to have more diversity on screen, in writers’ rooms and in production,” he says.
Suren was a participant in the 2020 AFTRS National Talent Camp program for emerging writers. He has written for ABC’s Tonightly with Tom Ballard and was a contributing writer on At Home Alone Together (ABC), as well as appearing on Chaser’s War on 2020 (online) and The Feed (SBS). Suren was host of Bendigo Bank’s The Life Coach podcast, released in 2020.
Rhianna Malezer (Biting Dust)
Multidisciplinary artist Rhianna is a proud Butchulla and Kamilaroi woman based in Meanjin (Brisbane). After graduating from Griffith Film School in 2009, she embarked on a career in the art department, working as production designer, art director, set dresser/buyer and standby props in Australia and New Zealand. Productions included Goldstone, Thor: Ragnarok, Mortal Engines, Wellington Paranormal, Black Comedy and The Voice.
In 2018, she was contracted to write several sketches for Black Comedy’s fourth and final season. In 2019, she completed a writer’s attachment on Ludo Studio’s The Strange Chores and was selected to write a comedy sketch for Bunya Productions’ Nice Shorts. She was also selected to participate in AFTRS Queensland Talent Camp.
“I’m invested in the continued push for historically excluded communities to be in control of their own stories and on-screen representation. I’m also invested in seeing top-to-bottom systemic change within the industry − from how we control IP, cast and crew our films, run our film sets to make them more inclusive and culturally safe, as well as lessen their impact on our environment.”
In 2020, Rhianna was shortlisted for the Screen Queensland Greg Coote Writer’s Scholarship, based on the pilot script for her web series Biting Dust. That same script earned her a place in AFTRS National Talent Camp. She was also selected for the development phase of Screen Australia Indigenous Department’s short film initiative No Ordinary Black, where she received funding and mentorship to further develop her short, The Stockman.
Rhianna will be making her directorial debut later this year with a funded short film.
Anna Miers (Small World)
Anna K. Miers is a documentary filmmaker, presenter, and writer from Alice Springs, Mparntwe. Her work focuses on human and environmental rights, Anna’s most recent project being a short series entitled Field Notes, about native Australian flora & fungi, and their connection to conservation and climate change.
“Small World is a series that aims to showcase the small daily struggles that people from marginalised communities experience and highlight the importance of chosen family: the people that lend us strength and help keep us afloat when we feel isolated in the way we experience the world.”
Commercially, Anna works freelance as a camera op, sound recordist, photographer, and editor. She is currently employed as the art coordinator on SBS’ Copping It Black, from Bunya Productions.
Neilesh Verma (Radical Honesty)
Sydney-based Neilesh is a Pakistani-Australian writer, director and former stand-up comedian. A Sydney Film School graduate, his award-winning short films and music videos have screened at both local and international festivals, and on television networks such as MTV India, Triangle Television (New Zealand) and SBS.
“Ideally, I’d like to play roles that would ordinarily go to Chris Hemsworth; if that doesn’t gain any traction, I reckon I’d make a pretty kick-ass Alf from Home and Away. In that sense, my range is limitless.”
Neilesh has opened for veteran comedians at both the Sydney Comedy Festival and the Sydney Fringe, and has recently finished writing his first feature film, a horror entitled Koan. In 2019, his TV project, Machans, was selected for AFTRS NSW Talent Camp and again in 2020 for AFTRS National Talent Camp.
