Vanessa Alexander

Vanessa Alexander is an Australian, New Zealand and British screenwriter, director and producer.[1][2]

Vanessa Alexander
BornNew York, U.S
Occupation
  • Screenwriter
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipAustralian/New Zealand/British/American
EducationUniversity of New South Wales
Notable worksThe Great
Tin Star
The Wrong Girl
Love Child
Agent Anna
Power Rangers
Being Eve

Early life and education

Alexander was born in New York to a New Zealand father and English mother.[1] She grew up in Laguna Beach, California before relocating to Oamaru, New Zealand in her teens.[1] She was educated at Laguna Beach High School, Waitaki Girls' High School and the University of Otago, where she studied a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. She also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Film Directing from The Victorian College of the Arts[3] and a Masters in Film and Television from The University of New South Wales.[4]

Alexander lives in Newcastle, Australia, moving there in 2012 after living in Paris.[2]

Career

Alexander began her career writing stage plays in New Zealand[5] and almost left the industry to apply for medical school after receiving multiple rejections for short film funding.[6] She won an international student playwriting contest in 1990 with a feminist reinterpretation of T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, titled My Nightingale has Come Unzipped.[1] Her first feature film Magik & Rose, which she wrote and directed at the age of 28, was produced by New Zealand director Larry Parr and funded by the New Zealand Film Commission under a low-budget film development scheme.[7] The film was shot in New Zealand's South Island with a budget of $350,000[7] and was nominated for four New Zealand Film Awards. It also won a jury prize at the Oporto Film Festival in Portugal.[1]

Alexander was a producer for Taika Waititi’s second short film Two Cars, One Night and has been a board member for the New Zealand Film Commission.[8] Her first job in television was as a producer, writer and director for the New Zealand children television series Being Eve.[9] The series was nominated for an International Emmy Award in the Children and Young People category.

Alexander is writing for the Netflix series Vikings: Valhalla [10][11][12] and is also a writer for the comedy-drama television series The Great, which was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2020 and a Writers Guild of America Award in 2021.[13] She has written for the British-Canadian television series Tin Star and the Australian television series Love Child, The Secret Daughter and The Wrong Girl, for which she was nominated for an AWGIE Award. She is the co-creator of the New Zealand television series Agent Anna and This is Not My Life.

On 21 January 2021, ViacomCBS International named Alexander as the lead writer for its development of a television series about the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi.[14][15] Titled "Artemesia", the series is also being produced by former ViacomCBS International Studios UK managing director Jill Offman and Pan's Labyrinth producer Frida Torresblanco, who said the development "will be a contemporary feminist piece that is at once provocative and transgressive, invoking the spirit of our present moment in an eloquent and elegant way”.[16]

Filmography

References
  1. NZ On Screen. "Vanessa Alexander | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  2. "The desperate search for Newcastle CBD childcare". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  3. "The director, Vanessa Alexander – Magik and Rose". www.magikandrose.co.nz. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  4. "Vanessa Alexander | Arts & Social Sciences – UNSW Sydney". www.arts.unsw.edu.au. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  5. NZ On Screen. "Vanessa Alexander: Magik and Rose, Being Eve, and more... | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  6. "Interview with Vanessa Alexander – Producer / Behind the scenes / Being Eve / Key Collection / Reviewed resources / Drama / Secondary teaching resources / Teaching and Learning / Home – Arts Online". artsonline.tki.org.nz. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  7. "Film Festival: Magik and Rose". NZ Herald. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  8. "New Chair for NZ Film Commission". The Beehive. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  9. "What went right with Eve?". NZ Herald. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  10. "Netflix's 'Vikings' Sequel Spinoff Confirms Its Cast". Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  11. "'Vikings: Valhalla': Sam Corlett, Frida Gustavsson, Leo Suter, Bradley Freegard Among 10 Cast In Netflix Series". Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  12. "'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' Vet Sam Corlett to Star as Leif Eriksson in Netflix's 'Vikings: Valhalla'". Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  13. [2021.https://variety.com/2021/tv/awards/writers-guild-awards-2021-television-nominees-1234899663/ "Writers Guild Unveils 2021 TV Award Nominees"] Check |url= value (help). Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  14. "ViacomCBS International Studios Ramps Up Development Slate, Drives into Nonfiction". Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  15. "ViacomCBS International Studios Unveils Slate". Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  16. "ViacomCBS International Studios Developing Series On Celebrated Artist Artemisia Gentileschi". Retrieved 2 February 2021.
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