Maria Lewis is an author, screenwriter and pop culture commentator from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Early life and education

Lewis was born in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

on the South Island before moving to the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. She started her journalism career as a teenager at the Gold Coast Bulletin, covering crime and general news. Her work on pop culture has appeared in publications such as ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'', ''

Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...

'', ''

Junkee Junkee is an Australian popular culture and news website run by new media company Junkee Media. It covers various topics including film, university, food, TV, politics, travel, career, health and Internet culture. Its target demographic is 18- to ...

'', ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

i09 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years ha ...

'', ''The Daily'' and ''

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

'', ''

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

'', and others.

Career

Lewis was known for her role as a panelist, presenter, writer and producer on SBS Viceland's nightly news program The Feed and is an ambassador for the Australian Stroke Foundation after surviving a Transient ischemic attack (TIA) when she was twenty-two. She was the writer, researcher, host and producer of audio documentaries Josie and the Podcats - which looked at the 2001 cult film,

Josie and the Pussycats Josie and the Pussycats (sometimes simply known as The Pussycats) are a fictional girl group rock band created by Dan DeCarlo. Appearances They have been featured in a number of different media since the 1960s: * ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (comic ...

- and The Phantom Never Dies - about the world’s first superhero, The Phantom. Lewis won the 2022 Audio - Non-Fiction AWGIE Award for episode two of the series - ''The Phantom Never Dies: ‘Fantomen’'' - and silver at the Australian Podcast Awards for Best Arts & Culture program, along with a nomination for Presenter Of The Year at the Radio Today Podcast Awards. In 2023, The Phantom Never Dies was awarded the

Convenors' Award for Excellence (Aurealis Award) The Convenors' Award for Excellence is one of the Aurealis Awards presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, Horror fi ...

for "highlighting diverse fans and fandoms". She primarily works as a screenwriter for film and television, including projects for AMC, Netflix, SBS, Ubisoft, ABC, Stan, DC Comics, and has curated seasons at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on Creature From The Black Lagoon, Aussie neo-noir (titled ''Yeah Noir''), Australian rom-coms (''Yeah The Girls'') and cult classics like Birds Of Prey, Candyman and Mad Max: Fury Road (''ACMI Watches''). Her Aurealis Award and Ditmar Award-nominated short story The House That Hungers was adapted into a short film starring Kimie Tsuakoshi in the lead role, with Lewis serving as writer, director, and producer. It premiered at

Supanova Supanova Comic Con & Gaming (also known simply as Supanova) is a fan convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy film and TV, comic books, anime, gaming and collectables. It is held annually in the Australian cities of Sydney, Brisbane, ...

in 2023.

Writing

Lewis is the author of several award-winning books and short stories. Her debut novel Who's Afraid? was published globally in 2015 and kickstarted the eight-book Supernatural Sisters series which "examined the feminine grotesque and the idea of female monsters". It featured a different type of classic mythological monster as the main character of each story, with characters and timelines overlapping before the finale, Her Fierce Creatures, which was published in 2022. The series was nominated for several awards, including an Aurealis Award in 2018 for Best Horror Novel for Who's Afraid Too?, an Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel for The Wailing Woman in 2020 - about a family of banshee sisters - and The Rose Daughter in 2022 respectively. Her fourth book, The Witch Who Courted Death, won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2019. Lewis' first crime-fiction novel - The Graveyard Shift - was acquired by Angry Robot and announced on Halloween 2022, with The Bookseller calling it "slasher-crime for the millennial generation". She told the publication: "The Graveyard Shift is the realisation of a lifelong dream of mine: to write a

slasher Slasher may refer to: * Slasher (basketball), a style of play in basketball * Slasher film, a subgenre of the horror film * Slasher (tool), a scrub-clearing implement * ''Slasher'' (2004 film), a 2004 documentary film * ''Slasher'' (2007 film) ...

". She was named as the author of Mockingbird: Strike Out, a new novel from Marvel featuring

S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage, special law enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in ''Strange Tales'' #135 (August 1965), it often deals ...

Agent and super-spy Bobbi Morse. The novel sees her team up with

S.T.R.I.K.E. S.T.R.I.K.E., an acronym for Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies, is a fictional counter-terrorism and intelligence agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The organization often deals with supe ...

Lance Hunter Lancelot "Lance" Hunter is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in ''Captain Britain Weekly'' #19 (February 16, 1977) and was created by writer Gary Friedrich and artist Herb Trimpe ...

following her divorce from Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. She is the author of the ''

Assassin's Creed ''Assassin's Creed'' is an open-world, action-adventure, and stealth game franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice D ...

'' novel ''Mirage - Daughter Of No One'', which serves as a tie-in to the video game ''

Assassin's Creed Mirage ''Assassin's Creed Mirage'' is a 2023 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux and published by Ubisoft. The game is the thirteenth major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series and the successor to 2020's ''Assassin's Creed V ...

'' (2023) and explores the backstory of one of the game's major characters, Roshan.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Mockingbird: Strike Out'' (Lewis: 6 June 2023: Aconyte) * ''The Graveyard Shift'' (Lewis: 10 October 2023, Angry Robot) * ''Assassin's Creed: Mirage – Daughter of No One'' (Lewis: 7 November 2023: Aconyte) Supernatural Sisters * ''Who's Afraid?'' - Supernatural Sisters #1 (Lewis: 12 December 2015: Hachette Australia) (Lewis: 14 July 2016: Piatkus UK) * ''Who's Afraid Too?'' - Supernatural Sisters #2 (Lewis: 21 Jan 2017: Hachette Australia) (Lewis: 14 July 2017: Piatkus UK) * ''It Came From The Deep'' - Supernatural Sisters #3 (Lewis: 21 October 2017: IngramSpark) *''The Witch Who Courted Death'' - Supernatural Sisters #4 (Lewis: 31 October 2018: Hachette Australia) (Lewis: 9 March 2019: Piatkus UK) *''The Wailing Woman'' - Supernatural Sisters #5 (Lewis: 1 November 2019: Hachette Australia) (Lewis: 9 March 2020: Piatkus UK) *''Who's Still Afraid?'' - Supernatural Sisters #6 (Lewis: 21 October 2020: IngramSpark) *''The Rose Daughter'' - Supernatural Sisters #7 (Lewis: 6 April 2021: Hachette Australia) (Lewis: 21 October 2021: Piatkus UK) *''Her Fierce Creatures'' - Supernatural Sisters #8 (Lewis: 13 March 2022: Hachette Australia) (Lewis: 4 October 2022: Piatkus UK)

Short stories

* ''Hot Stuff: Surfing Love'' (Caruso, Lewis, Sinclair. Woods: 1 Jan 2016: HarperCollins Publishers Australia) * ''Doing It: A Sex Positive Anthology'' (Pickering, Ford, Lewis et al: 29 August 2016: University Of Queensland Press) * ''And Then... The Great Big Book Of Awesome Adventure Tales: Volume 2'' (Goodman, Lewis, Nette et al.: 7 August 2017: Clan Destine Press) *''Tales From Kayfabia: The Unfortunate Origins of

Jimmy Havoc James McAhren (born 19 March 1984) is a British former professional wrestler best known under the ring name Jimmy Havoc. He is known for his work with Progress Wrestling, Defiant Wrestling, Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW), Major League Wr ...

Audio Short Story'' (Lewis: 2 November 2018: Conco and the Fudge) *''The Otherworld Sister -'' Supernatural Sisters #4.5 (Lewis: 21 September 2020: IngramSpark) *''The House That Hungers'' (Lewis: 13 November 2021: Aurealis #146) *''Damnation Games'' (Baxter, Lee, Anderton, Lewis et al: 1 November 2022: Clan Destine Press)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Maria Living people 21st-century Australian women writers Australian women short story writers Australian women science fiction and fantasy writers Australian science fiction writers Australian people of Māori descent People from the Gold Coast, Queensland People from Arrowtown 21st-century Australian short story writers Year of birth missing (living people)