Employable Me is an Australian television documentary series that features job-seekers who show that having a physical disability or neurological condition does not make them unemployable. Based on the British series that aired on BBC Two, [1] the series is produced by Northern Pictures for the ABC. It first screened in April 2018 [2] and a second season screened in 2019. [3]
Employable Me won an award in the Reality TV category at the Venice TV Awards in 2018 [4] and won two gold medals at the New York Festivals International TV & Film Awards. The first season won the 2019 United Nations Department of Public Information Gold Award to honour exceptional programs that best exemplify the aims and ideals of the United Nations and the second season won the Gold World Medal for Documentary for its exploration of social issues affecting people with neurodivergent conditions. [5]
Kurt Harry Fearnley, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and crawled the Kokoda Track without a wheelchair. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development of certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. In Paralympic events he is classified in the T54 classification. He focuses on long and middle-distance wheelchair races, and has also won medals in sprint relays. He participated in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, finishing his Paralympic Games career with thirteen medals. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
John Wood is an Australian television Gold Logie Award-winning actor and scriptwriter.
Deborah Jane Mailman is an Australian television and film actress, and singer. Mailman is known for her characters: Kelly Lewis on the Australian drama series The Secret Life of Us, Cherie Butterfield in the Australian comedy-drama series Offspring, Lorraine in the Australian drama series Redfern Now and Aunt Linda in the Australian dystopian science fiction series Cleverman. Mailman portrayed the lead role of MP Alexandra "Alex" Irving on the Australian political drama series Total Control.
Raymond George Martin AM is an Australian television journalist and entertainment personality. Having won the Gold Logie five times, he is the most awarded star of Australian television, along with Graham Kennedy.
Summer Heights High is an Australian television mockumentary sitcom written by and starring Chris Lilley. Set in the fictional Summer Heights High School in an outer suburb of Sydney, it revolves around high school experiences from the viewpoints of three individuals: "Director of Performing Arts" Mr G; private-school exchange student Ja'mie King; and disobedient, vulgar Tongan-Australian student Jonah Takalua. The series lampoons Australian high-school life and many aspects of the human condition and is filmed as a documentary with non-actors playing supporting characters. As he did in a previous series, We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year, Lilley plays multiple characters, including the aforementioned Mr G, Ja'mie and Jonah. The series premiered on 5 September 2007 at 9:30 pm on ABC TV and ended on 24 October 2007, only lasting eight episodes.
Lincoln Clay Lewis is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles in the movie Tomorrow, When the War Began and in the television series Home and Away and Slide.
Guy Edmonds is an Australian born director, writer, actor and author.
Anna Torv is an Australian actress who has worked extensively in the United States. Her performance as Olivia Dunham in the Fox science fiction series Fringe (2008–2013) earned her four consecutive Saturn Awards for Best Actress on Television, a record for any performer. She portrayed psychologist Wendy Carr in the Netflix period crime drama Mindhunter from 2017 to 2019, and Tess in the HBO post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us in 2023. She is especially known in Australia for the ABC drama The Newsreader, for which she won two consecutive AACTA Awards. She stars in the Netflix drama series Territory, set in Australia's Northern Territory, which premiered in October 2024.
A sitcom is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home, workplace, or community. Unlike sketch comedy, which features different characters and settings in each skit, sitcoms typically maintain plot continuity across episodes. This continuity allows for the development of storylines and characters over time, fostering audience engagement and investment in the characters' lives and relationships.
Peter Hegedüs is a Hungarian/Australian writer, director and producer of both documentary and fiction films. He is also the grandson of the former Prime Minister of Hungary, András Hegedüs. Hegedüs' work explores critical social justice issues. His most recent film, Sorella's Story, was selected to screen at the Venice International Film Festival.
Please Like Me is an Australian comedy-drama television series created by and starring Josh Thomas. Thomas also serves as a writer for most episodes. The series premiered on 28 February 2013 on ABC2 in Australia and is on occasion available on Netflix in certain regions. The show explores realistic issues with humorous tones; executive producer Todd Abbott had pitched the show as a drama rather than a sitcom. The show aired later on the United States network Pivot, which then helped to develop the show from its second season onwards. Four seasons of the show have been broadcast, and creator Thomas has stated that he has no plans to make any further episodes. The show has attracted praise from critics and has garnered numerous nominations, winning a number of awards.
You Can't Ask That is an Australian TV series created by ABC Television that first went to air in August 2016. As of June 2022 its seventh season is on air in Australia.
Grace Beside Me is an Australian fantasy drama television series for children which premiered on NITV on 16 February 2018 and later aired on ABC Me. The series is based on the novel Grace Beside Me, by Sue McPherson, and was filmed in the Scenic Rim Region in South East Queensland. The television adaptation was produced by a team composed entirely of women, including Aboriginal screenwriters.
Employable Me is a Canadian television documentary series, which features job-seekers determined to show that having a physical disability or neurological condition shouldn't make them unemployable.
Northern Pictures is an Australian-based television production company, which develops and produces unscripted and factual television programs for multiple television channels in Australia and internationally. The company was founded by Sue Clothier in 2010.
The Venice TV Award is a television prize bestowed each year in September. Two weeks after the Venice International Film Festival, a team of jurors from around the world meet in Venice to select the winners of 19 categories. Prerequisite for a nomination is that the production was first broadcast on a television station. The exception is the New Talent category. This award also highlights that the TV industry is a $260 billion industry worldwide with around 38,500 TV channels in operation and is supported by egta, ACT and IMZ. This award brings national and international recognition for quality content.
Patricia Morton-Thomas, usually credited as Trisha Morton-Thomas, is an Australian writer, producer, director, and actor. Her first role in a feature film was in Radiance (1998), the first feature film by director Rachel Perkins. Morton-Thomas and Rachel Clements co-founded filmmaking company Brindle Films in Alice Springs in 2011.
Love on the Spectrum is an Australian reality television show that follows people on the autism spectrum as they explore the dating world. The show is produced by Northern Pictures for ABC TV, and was made available to stream on ABC iview and Netflix.
Aftertaste is an Australian television comedy series on ABC TV, first airing on 3 February 2021. It is created by Julie De Fina and Matthew Bate, produced by Closer Productions. The first season was directed by Jonathan Brough, and the second, airing from 20 July 2022, by Renée Webster.
Darren Dale is an Indigenous Australian film and television producer. He joined film production company Blackfella Films as a producer and later co-director, and as of August 2024 is managing director. Dale is known for co-producing many films and television series with Miranda Dear since 2010, with their most recent collaboration being the second season of Total Control.