Zoe Angus.
Zoe Angus has quit as national director of Equity at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) to join Screen Producers Australia (SPA).
Angus takes the newly created role of SPA’s director – industry and commercial, while Andrew Crowley has been named as Equity’s acting national director.
While Equity has had its differences with screen producers from time to time, her appointment is indicative of the mutual respect and generally constructive relationship between the two organisations.
Indeed, Angus resigned while the union was negotiating a new industrial agreement with SPA.
“We’re pleased to welcome Zoe to the SPA team,” said SPA CEO Matt Deaner. “She comes with extensive experience in and knowledge of employment law and the Australian screen industry.”
Meanwhile, the MEAA has struck a deal with the producers for the Australian cast of Clickbait, an eight-part thriller commissioned by Netflix that will shoot in Victoria.
Tony Ayres and Christian White co-created the US-set show which is produced by Tony Ayres Productions, NBCUniversal-owned Matchbox Pictures and the UK’s Heyday Television.
The MEAA said the agreement is a “mix of the best of US (Screen Actors Guild) and Australian Equity conditions.”
Angus, who joined the MEAA as an industrial officer in 2013, graduated with honours in politics from the University of Queensland in 1989. She also holds a Master of Industrial Relations and a Juris Doctor of Law from Melbourne University.
She spent almost 10 years in teaching roles, including running the first year Australian Government tutorial program at Sydney University and teaching English in Israel for several years, before specialising in employment law as a legal officer for the Australian Workers’ Union.