Hilary Bell (born 19 July 1966) is an Australian writer of stage, fiction, radio, screen, and theatre.

Early life and education

Hilary bell was born in

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

, UK, on 19 July 1966, the daughter of John Bell (founder of the

Bell Shakespeare Bell Shakespeare is an Australian theatre company specialising in the works of William Shakespeare, his contemporaries and other classics. It is based in Sydney. The Bell Shakespeare vision is to create theatre that allows audiences of all wal ...

company) and Anna Volska. She grew up in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and attended high school with fellow Sydney writer

Justine Ettler Justine Ettler (born 1965) is an Australian author who is best known for her 1995 novel, '' The River Ophelia'', which was shortlisted for the 1995 Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction - Horror Division - Best Novel. ...

. She is a graduate of the

National Institute of Dramatic Art The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts is based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, many of Australia's leading actors and directors trained at NIDA, including Cat ...

, the

Australian Film, Television and Radio School The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) formerly Australian Film and Television School, is Australia's national screen arts and broadcast school. The school is a Commonwealth Government statutory authority. History Establishe ...

, and the Juilliard Playwrights' Studio in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Career

Bell writes for radio, screen, and theatre and also writes

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

Recognition and awards

In 1996 she joint won the 1996

Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been fi ...

with her novel, '' Mirror, Mirror'' which is an adaptation of the 1995

television show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

which Bell was a writer for. She has also won awards for her work as a playwright; the

Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award The NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights, formerly the Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award, is an Australian annual award for early-career playwrights in New South Wales, offered by Belvoir St Theatre and Arts NSW from 199 ...

, the Jill Blewett's Playwright's Award, the Bug'n'Bub Award, the Eric Kocher Playwrights' Award, the 2007 Inscription Award, and an

AWGIE award The AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild, for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing. The awards began in 1967. The awards are judged by over 50 writers, most of whom are previo ...

Personal life

Bell's sister is Lucy Bell, and she married

Phillip Johnston Phillip Johnston (born January 22, 1955) is an American avant-garde saxophonist. He came to prominence in the 1980s as co-founder of The Microscopic Septet and went on to write extensively for films, particularly new scores for classic silent fi ...

Bibliography

Plays and theatre

Her plays include:Ozscipt.org
/ref> *''Wolf Lullaby'' *''Fortune'' *''The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch'' *''The Falls'' *''Memmie Le Blanc'' *''The Bloody Bride'' *''Perfect Stranger'' *''A Pocket Full of Hula Dreams'' *"Ugly Beauty" *"Connectivity" Other theatre credits include: *''Mrs. Satan'' (opera) *''The Wedding Song'' (musical) *''Talk Show'' (song cycle) *''Faust'' (libretto to

's score)

Television

Television credits include: *''

Echo Point ''Echo Point'' is an Australian television soap opera produced by Endemol Australia, Southern Star Group for Network Ten on 1 June 1995 until 1 December 1995. The series was devised as an attempt by the Ten Network to rival the opposition soap ...

'' (1995, writer) *'' Mirror, Mirror'' (1995, writer) **'' Mirror, Mirror'' (1996), novelised from the TV series

Children's books

The following books were illustrated by Antonia Pesenti * ''Alphabetical Sydney'' (2013) * ''Numerical Sydney'' (2015) * ''Summer Time'' (2019)

References

External links

Living people 1966 births Helpmann Award winners National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni Australian women dramatists and playwrights Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian women writers {{Australia-writer-stub