Who We Are
SPA’s mission is to foster a thriving environment that supports independent film, television, animation, and digital production.
Leveraging our expertise and resources, SPA staff strive to establish a robust and sustainable position for practitioners within the industry.
By cultivating relationships with key stakeholders and fostering collaboration and unity amongst members, we empower a dynamic industry that fosters creativity, cultural enrichment, and commercial success within Australia and overseas.
Refer to our Strategic Plan and Annual Reports below for further information.
Our Council
We are governed by an elected council comprising some of Australia's foremost screen industry professionals. Annually, we hold elections to appoint representatives from the feature film, broadcast, online, immersive media production and industry services and facilities sectors.
Kate Carnell is a company director and small business advisor, appointed Chair of the SPA Council in 2025. Kate has extensive experience and knowledge in the business sector, having run her own small businesses for 15 years before becoming ACT Chief Minister in 1995 for a five year period.
Kate completed her five year term as the inaugural Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) in March 2021.
Kate was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2006 for her services to the community.
Tracey is the Chief Content Officer for Emmy® and BAFTA Award winning film and television production company Hoodlum operating globally between Australia, the US and the UK. Tracey joined Hoodlum in September 2019 after five years as CEO of Screen Queensland and works across Hoodlum’s full development and market slates.
Tracey works on expanding Hoodlum’s global slate across scripted and unscripted television and feature film with productions currently in development with partners including ABC Signature, Fox, Peacock, Stan, Netflix, CBS International and A&E amongst others.
Suzanne is the Founder, CEO and Executive Producer of SLR Productions, a company she established in 2000 to follow her passion and love of screen content.
Suzanne has created, produced and invested in hundreds of hours of award winning content which has been exported to 160 countries. Suzanne is an Emmy Award winning producer, Winner of the Premier’s NSW Export Awards in Creative Industries, a twice recipient of Screen Producers Australia – Children’s Producer of the Year, and Winner B&T Women in Media Producer of the Year as well as many other awards that acknowledge and celebrate her achievements as a Producer.
Aaron Fa’Aoso first came to prominence in 2004 with his performance as ‘Eddie’ in the critically acclaimed SBS mini-series, R.A.N., for which he received nominations for an AFI Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Drama and a LOGIE Award for Most Outstanding New Talent.
Aaron is a four time Deadly Award nominee for Male Actor of the Year for his performances in R.A.N. and East West 101.
Greg is the CEO of Fremantle Australia, a world leader in creating, producing and distributing content. Greg joined Fremantle in 2007 and was COO of the organisation before being appointed Fremantle’s CEO in 2022.
He assumes full responsibility for the company’s overall management and business performance including leading the financing, development and production of programming across a wide range of genres. Throughout his tenure at Fremantle Greg has played an integral role in top-rating and iconic programs such as Neighbours, Wentworth, Heartbreak High, Grand Designs as well as the Fremantle unscripted catalogue programs.
Lisa Scott is one of Australia’s leading producers and founder of Highview Productions. Her latest production Speedway screened at the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival, along with the short film Blame The Rabbit which premiered on opening night and shared the audience award for Best Short Film. Her recent drama series The Tourist premiered on BBC1 & Stan in early 2022 to critical acclaim and winning three Awards including Best Mini Series at the 2022 Golden Nymph Awards.
She also produced A Sunburnt Christmas, in association with Every Cloud Productions, which premiered on Stan in December 2020, and was nominated in the 2021 AACTA Awards and the 2021 Screen Producers Australia Awards for Best TV Mini Series or Telefeature.
Nick is the MD and co-founder of CJZ. He has a unique and very broad background in TV – as a producer and network executive at both cable and free-to air networks. His credits span comedy, light entertainment, drama and factual production as Producer and Executive Producer. Nick is known as Mr Fix-It in the office as he is quite handy with the tools. Mr Murray also looks after the office fish tank.
Jill has worked for Entertainment Partners, formally Moneypenny Services, since 1989. Starting out as an accounts assistant she then worked her way up to be the production accountant/financial controller on films such as Muriel’s Wedding, Paradise Road, Oscar and Lucinda and Moulin Rouge.
Edwina is Head of Production for Roadshow Films, one of Australia’s leading independent film distributors; producing and distributing acclaimed film and television releases in Australia and New Zealand for over fifty years. Partners include Warner Bros., HBO, Lionsgate, FilmNation, ITV, Fremantle Media, and more.
Roadshow is at the forefront of Australian filmmaking, fostering new talent and bringing the local industry roaring onto the global stage. Passionate supporters of Australian cinema, Roadshow has released record-breaking cinematic classics such as Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Muriel's Wedding, The Castle, Mao’s Last Dancer, Happy Feet, and Red Dog, as well as more recent box office successes; Oddball, Paper Planes, Penguin Bloom, and The Dry.
Tracey is a proud hard of hearing woman with a passion for film, advocacy and inclusion. As CEO of Bus Stop Films she is advocating for greater representation of people with disability in the screen industry, receiving an OAM in 2023 for service to the arts and to people with disability.
Her 25-year career has crossed social housing, women’s domestic violence services, including 6 years as the State Manager of Women’s Domestic Violence Court Assistance Program and the film and television industry, working with a number of industry services including Screen NSW, Event Cinemas and Women in Film and TV (WIFT) NSW.
Catherine has had over 25 years’ experience in the media space in a wide range of roles including channel management, distribution and as an executive producer. Since joining Northern Pictures in 2014, she has had a slate of over 600 episodes commissioned in Australia and internationally.
Catherine was previously General Manager, SVP, for Nickelodeon Asia where she oversaw distribution, production, programming and marketing. Before moving to Asia, Catherine was the Managing Director for Nickelodeon Australia where she was responsible for launching Nick Jnr., as well as delivering the #1 Channel and online portal for kids.
Kylie is BBC Studios ANZ’s General Manager and Creative Director of Production, responsible for exploiting BBC Studios’ extensive format catalogue and driving the creation of new intellectual property in the Australian market.
Kylie has a wealth of experience adapting international formats for the Australian and Asian markets, as well as developing and overseeing formatted factual entertainment. Her previous roles include Director of Unscripted at Matchbox Pictures where she delivered a slate of titles including Real Housewives of Melbourne and Sydney, Room 101, original format Formal Wars and original entertainment series Everyone’s A Critic, as well as setting up the Matchbox Asia business which delivered content across all of NBCU’s Channels within Asia. Prior to that, Kylie was a series producer and development producer for Active TV, working across a broad range of genres where her credits included Prank Patrol, The Amazing Race Australia and The Amazing Race Asia.
Rebecca is a storyteller, filmmaker, co-founder of Media Stockade and an adventurer at heart. She lives for exceptional stories that make us think again – like our award-winning series Back to Nature (co-production with Threshold Pictures). In drama or documentary, as director or producer, her collaborative artistry reveals worlds known and unknown. In 2012 she founded Media Stockade with Madeleine Hetherton-Miau.
She has created critically acclaimed shows for National Geographic, ABC, SBS, Network 10, Netflix, Hulu, BBC, Al Jazeera, and more. Her work screens at film festivals globally, including IDFA, HotDocs, FIFO, Sydney Film Festival, and Melbourne International Film Festival. Rebecca is a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Technology, Sydney. Her research explored the dark grey zone of power and ethics in documentary consent processes. She is a certified Mental Health First Aider.
Who We Are
Learn more about the Screen Producers Australia team. Click headshots to see bios.
Matthew Deaner is our Chief Executive Officer. Matthew sits across all aspects of Screen Producers Australia's advocacy work, industrial negotiations, events and operational issues. He also works closely with our Council to set the strategic direction of the organisation as well as identify and execute new business development opportunities.
Sarah is our Chief Operations Officer ensuring a smooth running of the organisation and looking after all operational matters including People, Partnerships, Governance and Finance. Prior to joining SPA, Sarah has an extensive background in media and screens advertising, having ran a successful media agency for 5 years prior.
James is our CFO and responsible for planning, governance activity and the organisation's finance function.
Zoe Angus is the Director of Industrial and Commercial at Screen Producers Australia. Prior to this, she was the National Director of Actors Equity at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance. She graduated with honours in politics from the University of Queensland in 1989 and holds a Master of Industrial Relations and a Juris Doctor of Law from Melbourne University. Zoe has extensive experience in and knowledge of employment law and the Australian screen industry.
Samantha Gill is the Director of Marketing, Events and Partnerships at Screen Producers Australia, focused on the organisations partnerships with screen agencies, industry and corporate partnerships and overseeing the delivery of meaningful courses and events for our members including SCREEN FOREVER. Prior to joining Screen Producers Australia, Sam has held previous roles in the sponsorship and events industry for many years working across sporting, corporate and major events.
Jane has previously worked at senior levels of government for Ministers and Shadow Ministers as well as a Senior Government Lawyer in the Department of Education and in other government agencies across a range of policy areas, including communications matters.
Andy Barclay is the Director of Industry Growth at Screen Producers Australia, focusing on expanding global opportunities, increasing investment, and building industry skills within the Australian screen sector. With extensive experience in business affairs, he previously served as SPA’s Business & Legal Affairs Manager, where he provided key commercial and industrial advice and helped support the organisation’s policy and advocacy efforts.
Renée is our Senior Finance and Operations Manager. She oversees the financial operations of SPA, as well as the planning, management and implementation of operational projects and activities for the organisation.
Brad Taylor is our Membership, Licensing & Diversity Manager and is responsible for managing membership and stakeholder relations. Brad is the primary contact for enquires regarding membership and levies.
Jessica's role as Industry Programs Manager includes program curation for SCREEN FOREVER, leading conference and SPA Connect Market strategy, as well as spearheading SPA initiatives such as GENR8, Ones To Watch, Pitch On Demand and building future initiatives and opportunities within Screen Producers Australia both domestically and globally.
Aidan oversees SPA's marketing, communications and public relations for our corporate activity and the annual SCREEN FOREVER conference and SPA Awards.
Bee oversees event production, leading design and planning, production and delivery of all physical, digital and hybrid industry events.
Chrysa is a Partnerships and Events Coordinator at Screen Producers Australia, supporting corporate and government partnerships and managing sponsor relationships for SCREEN FOREVER.
Emily is our Digital Content Producer. She creates and promotes content across SPA's social media channels, website, email campaigns, and newsletters.
Sharmini is our Office Manager and Executive Assistant and provides extensive support to the SPA team.
Michelle works with Screen Producers Australia (SPA) across their industry programs and as a course convenor.