When actress and writer Ansuya Nathan returned to Australia at the beginning of 2021 after nine years in the US, applying for SBS’s newly-launched Emerging Writers’ Incubator, or any other initiatives like it, was not a priority.
Having put herself forward for “countless” diversity programs in LA, she admitted to being a bit burnt out by the process, while also wary of a changing industry climate following the civil unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd in the first half of 2020.
“In the wake of that social reckoning, the entertainment industry in The States began to examine its practices with regards to people of colour, and what was brought to the fore was that while diversity programs may have started with the best of intentions, they often become another hoop for marginalised people to jump through to validate their talent or work,” she told IF.
“More often than not, they didn’t lead to any significant career momentum as there was little in the way of support afterward.”
However, Nathan would end up taking a chance on SBS’s incubator, encouraged both by the broadcaster’s track record when it came to diversity and the fact the incubator “seemed to be unique to the writer and the company they were placed with”.
“[SBS’s] charter has diversity and inclusion ingrained in it, as well as giving a voice to marginalised people,” she said.
“They hadn’t announced the companies [when I applied] but knowing that people like Tony Ayres, who I really admired, had been instrumental in setting up the program really pushed me to apply.”
Nathan, who is of Indian origin, wrapped up a year-long placement at Closer Productions last month, having been chosen as the South Australian participant of the incubator’s inaugural round.
Supported by Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation, her time at the company included being in the writers’ room for the second season of Aftertaste and assisting series director Renee Webster in pre-production. She also starred as Janine in the last episode.
Nathan received feedback on her own work from development manager Matt Vesely, producer Rebecca Summerton, director Sophie Hyde, and writer Matthew Cormack, and even conducted her own writers’ room for a half-hour comedy she is working on with comedian Claire Hooper titled So, You Want to be Famous?
“The fact that Closer is a collective with people that have very different perspectives, but also different skills that they bring to the company was really interesting to me because I’ve always kind of seen myself as a multi-hyphenate rather than just an actor or a writer,” Nathan said.
“They were also family-friendly. I have a four-year-old, so being a full-time working parent is a whole other ballgame. I feel they were great at understanding what that’s like and being accommodating to those days where he can’t get into the office.”
The placement at Closer, and her preceding acting role in Stan original The Tourist, signalled a more permanent return to the South Australian industry for Nathan, who left her home city of Adelaide at 19 to attend NIDA in Sydney.
She has since studied and worked in New Zealand, the UK, and the US, while appearing in Australian productions such as Hotel Mumbai and Upright.
The creative is also known for her work in theatre, serving as company producer and co-artistic director of Tamarama Rock Surfers – the resident independent theatre company at the Old Fitzroy Theatre in Sydney – and writing and performing solo show, Long Live the King, at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010.
The pilot adaptation of Long Live the King, which tells the story of a young Indian couple that migrate to Australia the day after Elvis Presley dies but can’t shake the presence of the crooner, was the project for which she was selected for the Emerging Writers’ Incubator and is now also being turned into a novel.
Other upcoming projects include Rakshasa, a horror film co-written with her husband about a female US Army Ranger, who along with her team is sent to investigate a terrorist stronghold on the Kashmiri border, only to find the entire village viciously wiped out by a Rakshasa—the very real Hindu demon upon which all vampire myths are based.
Having completed a draft, the pair is courting interest from a US producer.
Speaking about her plans going forward, the Adelaide native said she was looking forward to the opportunities that lay ahead on both sides of the camera.
“I’m excited to be back available as an actor and to be auditioning again,” she said.
“It’s been really great and some interesting things have been coming across my desk in that respect.
“But I’ve always been interested in creating work and now I feel like I’ve got the skills to put those ideas into the TV format.”