Vanessa Alexander is an Australian, New Zealand and British screenwriter, director and producer best known for writing on '' Vikings: Valhalla'' and ''The Great''.

Early life and education

Alexander was born in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

to a New Zealand father and English mother. She grew up in

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservat ...

before relocating to

Oamaru, New Zealand Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railwa ...

in her teens. She was educated at

Laguna Beach High School Laguna Beach High School is a 4-year public high school located in Laguna Beach, California. It is the only high school in the Laguna Beach Unified School District. It was established in 1934 and is accredited by the Western Association of Schoo ...

Waitaki Girls' High School "Satisfaction from hard work" , established = 1887; years ago , principal = Elizabeth Koni , address = Trent Street, Oamaru, New Zealand , coordinates = , type = State, Girls, Secondary years 9-13 , roll = () , decile ...

and the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

, where she studied a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. She also holds a post-graduate diploma in film directing from The Victorian College of the Arts and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from

The University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public university, public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight (Australian universities), ...

. Alexander lives in

Newcastle, Australia Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area ...

, moving there in 2012 after living in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Career

Alexander began her career writing stage plays in New Zealand and almost left the industry to apply for medical school after receiving multiple rejections for short film funding. She won an international student playwriting contest in 1990 with a feminist reinterpretation of

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

's poem ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...

'', titled ''My Nightingale has Come Unzipped''. Her first feature film ''Magik & Rose'', which she wrote and directed at the age of 28, was produced by New Zealand director Larry Parr and funded by the

New Zealand Film Commission The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC; mi, Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga) is a New Zealand government agency formed to assist with creating and promoting New Zealand films. It was established under the New Zealand Film Commission Act 1978 (as amende ...

under a low-budget film development scheme. The film was shot in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

at the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival with a budget of $350,000 and was nominated for four

New Zealand Film Awards New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. It also won a jury prize at the Oporto Film Festival in Portugal. Alexander was a producer for

Taika Waititi Taika David Cohen (born 16 August 1975), known professionally as Taika Waititi ( ), is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at t ...

’s second short film ''

Two Cars, One Night ''Two Cars, One Night'' is a 2004 New Zealand short film written and directed by Taika Waititi. The film is about two young boys and a girl meeting in the carpark of a rural pub in Te Kaha, New Zealand. What at first seems to be a relationshi ...

'' and has been a board member for the New Zealand Film Commission. Her first job in television was as a producer, writer and director for the New Zealand children television series ''

Being Eve ''Being Eve'' is a teen comedy-drama television series from New Zealand, originally shown on TV3 from 2001 to 2002, and later broadcast on Noggin's teen block The N in the US. ''Being Eve'' focuses on a teenage girl, Eve Baxter, and her daily p ...

''. The series was nominated for an

International Emmy Award The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and S ...

in the Children and Young People category. Alexander wrote for the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series '' Vikings: Valhalla'' and was also a writer for the comedy-drama television series ''The Great'', which was nominated for numerous awards, including two

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers Guil ...

awards for which Alexander was a listed nominee. She has written for the British-Canadian television series ''Tin Star'' and the Australian television series ''Love Child'', ''

The Secret Daughter ''The Secret Daughter'' is an Australian television drama series which premiered on the Seven Network on 3 October 2016. The series is written by Justin Monjo, Greg Haddrick, Louise Bowes and Keith Thompson and directed by Leah Purcell, Geoff ...

'' and ''The Wrong Girl'', for which she was nominated for 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 ...

. She directed the New Zealand television series ''

Agent Anna ''Agent Anna'' is a New Zealand comedy-drama television series, created by Maxine Fleming with Vanessa Alexander and devised by Robyn Malcolm. It is produced by Great Southern Film and Television and funded by NZ on Air and Television New Zeal ...

''. On 21 January 2021, ViacomCBS International named Alexander as the lead writer for its development of a television series about the Italian

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

artist

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...

. Titled "Artemisia", the series is also being produced by former ViacomCBS International Studios UK managing director Jill Offman and ''

Pan's Labyrinth ''Pan's Labyrinth'' ( es, El laberinto del fauno, lit=The Labyrinth of the Faun, links=no) is a 2006 dark fantasy horror film written, directed and co-produced by Guillermo del Toro. A Spanish-Mexican(78% Spanish production, 22% Mexican productio ...

'' producer Frida Torresblanco, who said the development "will be a contemporary feminist piece that is at once provocative and transgressive, invoking the spirit of our present moment in an eloquent and elegant way”.

Filmography

Film

Television

The numbers in directing and writing credits refer to the number of episodes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Vanessa Australian television directors Australian women film directors Australian women film producers Australian women screenwriters Australian women television producers Australian women television writers British women screenwriters British women television writers Living people New Zealand television directors New Zealand television producers New Zealand television writers New Zealand women film directors New Zealand women film producers New Zealand women screenwriters People educated at Waitaki Girls' High School University of New South Wales alumni University of Otago alumni Year of birth missing (living people) People from Oamaru Australian women television directors British women television directors