Screen Australia expands management team, allocates development funding

Screen Australia has expanded its management team by hiring former Screenworks CEO Ken Crouch in the newly created position of training and industry development manager.

Ken Crouch

The role has been created to address the shortage of trained and experienced screen practitioners. Crouch will take the lead in working with screen government agencies, educational institutions, industry partners and guilds, broadcasters and streamers, local production companies and all levels of government to grow the capacity of the screen production sector, particularly in crew roles.

Starting work in February, Crouch will be tasked with developing and implementing national programmes to support capacity building and skills development for the Australian screen sector. He will work closely with Screen Oz head of content Grainne Brunsdon on this aim.

The agency has also bolstered its development unit by appointing Tanya Mukerjee as development executive. Mukerjee has previously worked in diversity and inclusion for UK pubcaster the BBC and commercial broadcaster ITV.

The appointments come as Screen Oz has provided A$1.2m (US$800,000) in development funding, split across 11 TV dramas, 19 feature films and two online projects.

The funded TV and online series include Summer of Evil, from writer/producer Michael Hudson (Ties That Bind), a six-part action-adventure horror series set in the Australian bushland; and Combatoms, a 13-part sci-fi action/adventure series directed by David Peers and produced by Big Serious Studios.

The slate also includes Just Chidi Things, an eight-part comedy series following a Nigerian medical student who carries the weight of her family’s expectations on her shoulders. Writer, producer and lead actor Chika Ikogwe (Heartbreak High) and executive producer Rose Byrne are behind the project.

Also receiving funding are Kick It, a six-part online series about women’s AFL from the creative team behind hit TikTok series The Formal, which has chalked up more than eight million views online; and Deadbeat Ends Meet, an animated online comedy produced by Nicholas Colla (The Future of Everything, Rebooted).