Jacquelin Perske

Jacquelin Perske has worked extensively in television as a writer and script producer.

Most recently she wrote BBC thriller The Cry based on best-selling author Helen Fitzgerald’s book with Jenna Coleman (Victoria, Captain America: The First Avenger). The show was the second biggest drama launch of the year for the BBC securing almost 6 million viewers and winning its timeslot. In recent years, Jacquelin has written and script produced Seven Types of Ambiguity with Hugo Weaving and Xavier Samuel (Matchbox Pictures/ABC) and Deadline Gallipoli (Matchbox Pictures/Foxtel), starring Sam Worthington and Hugh Dancy. Deadline Gallipoli took home the Australian Writers’ Guild Award (AWGIE) for Television Mini Series in 2015, while her episode of Seven Types of Ambiguity, “Alex”, was nominated for a 2017 AWGIE Award for Best Television Series or Miniseries.

She was the producer, co-creator and writer of Spirited for Foxtel, which was nominated for an AFI, with the pilot episode earning her the 2012 AWGIE for Best Drama. The second series was also nominated for Best Television Drama at the Australian Academy Awards (AACTA). Jacquelin previously worked as producer, co-creator and writer on the acclaimed series Love My Way, which received 14 awards – including an AFI Award for Best Screenplay in a Television Series – and 24 nominations. This was the first non-network drama series in Australia to ever receive this level of recognition and has been a key element in Foxtel’s pursuit of the HBO model of production. Jacquelin was also part of an international team of writers working on George Lucas’ live action series for television, Star Wars: Underworld and recently worked on the TNT series Will based on the early life of William Shakespeare. Her other credits include Big Sky, Raw FM, Fireflies, AFI award-winning The Secret Life of Us, and the Netflix re-imagining of Monkey Magic, The New Legends of Monkey.

Jacquelin wrote one of Australia’s most highly acclaimed films of 2005, Little Fish. The film starred Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Martin Henderson and received an astonishing 13 AFI award nominations. Reviews reserved special praise for Jacquelin’s complex, compelling script, consolidating her position as one of the country’s most gifted and in-demand storytellers. In 2013, Jacquelin won the prestigious Foxtel Fellowship at the Australian Writers’ Guild Awards. She is currently developing a number of projects including an adaptation of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews, who survived Auschwitz and eventually made their home in Australia.