Six screenwriters have been chosen to take part in the NCIS: Sydney S1 Script Department Program, with Rachael Alford, Ella Cook, James Cripps, Siobhan Domingo, Josh Sambono and Clare Sladden to complete 10-week full-time paid placements on the upcoming drama.
Delivered through Screen Australia, in association with Paramount ANZ, CBS Studios, Endemol Shine Australia, and the Australian Writers’ Guild, the initiative is designed to give early to mid-career experience in each of the roles that make up a global script department, while benefitting from the guidance of senior script co-ordinators, writers and editors.
NCIS: Sydney — the first iteration of the drama based outside the US — will launch exclusively on Paramount+ and Network 10, while debuting internationally on Paramount+ in 2023.
Screen Australia head of content, Grainne Brunsdon said the agency had been blown away by the volume of applications received for the program, following the initial launch in September.
“Screen Australia is proud to support early to mid-career writers to take part in a global series and not only gain knowledge and experience in the Script Department of a renowned drama but also bring their authentic perspectives to the Sydney iteration of NCIS,” she said.
Endemol Shine Australia CEO Peter Newman also noted the “extraordinary” calibre of the submissions, while Paramount ANZ head of drama and executive production Rick Maier expected the industry would “be hearing a lot more” from the successful applicants.
The successful writers are as follows:
- Rachael Alford is a writer and actor from Melbourne, Australia. In 2018, she gained her Master of Screenwriting from the Victorian College of the Arts, after which she received VicScreen’s Key Talent Writing Placement on Neighbours, where she went on to work as script coordinator, then trainee editor/storyliner. In recent months, Alford has been notetaking for Fremantle’s Rock Island Mysteries and Endemol Shine’s RFDS, as well as developing her own projects.
- Ella Cook is a screenwriter, script editor, and producer, with a background in drama development. Her short film The Exit Plan, starring Paapa Essiedu and Marcia Warren, premiered in 2021 at Flickerfest and played at festivals internationally. The film won Best International Film at Norwich International Film Festival and Best Drama at Women Over 50 Film Festival. For stage, Cook’s work has been performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, and London’s Theatre N16. She is in the midst adapting a novel to TV for the UK, and was a finalist in the 2022 AACTA Pitch: Mother for her horror concept Specimen.
- James Cripps is a screenwriter and script editor. Having previously worked as Screentime’s drama development coordinator, he was involved in shows such as Wolf Creek (Stan), Pine Gap (Netflix) and Underbelly Files: Chopper (Nine Network). Cripps’ script editor credits include Informer 3838 (Nine Network) and Janet King 3 (ABC). His comedy-drama series High Rotation was developed with support from Screen Australia and won the 2021 Australian Writers’ Guild Monte Miller Award (Long Form). After being shortlisted in the 2019 Monte Miller Awards, his horror-thriller Blooded was optioned by Beyond Entertainment and was a finalist in the 2021 AACTA Pitch: Bite competition.
- Siobhan Domingo is a screenwriter and director. Their first short film, Double, screened at Cannes Film Festival in 2017, and in 2021, they received funding to develop an original television series, How To Lose Weight and Survive the Apocalypse in partnership with Screen Queensland and Wattpad Studios. In 2022 Domingo was chosen to participate in the Impact Australia development program to write and develop their original series The Almost Insufferable Burden of being a Talented Woman.
- Josh Sambono, a Jingili man, is an action and horror writer based in Western Sydney. He has written several short films that have screened at festivals across the world. His First Nations horror short Suspect premiered at Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) in Korea in 2020 and won Best Australian Short at Sydney’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival. He has been in many writers’ rooms for television shows developed by Bunya Productions and Blackfella Films. His television writing debut came in 2021 on Warwick Thornton’s AMC+ vampire hunter series Firebite.
- Clare Sladden is a Meeanjin/Brisbane-based screenwriter and director. After finding success on the festival circuit with her short films and online with her AWGIE-nominated web-series, Freudian Slip, she segued into the narrative audio space, where she wrote, directed, and produced the Audible Original podcast, Winding Road, and wrote on Audible’s Wentworth spin-off series, The Fall Girl. Clare earned her first television credit on Stan Original series, Eden, and she developed her original project, Pathological, as the successful participant of Screen Queensland’s Bradford Winters Lab, a program designed to facilitate emerging showrunners.