Marieke Hardy

Marieke Hardy began life as a child actor and has since forged a successful career as a screenwriter, playwright, producer, artist immersive theatre maker and media presenter.
Marieke was the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Writers Festival for both the groundbreaking 2018 and 2019 programs. She is currently developing several new projects both in the US and Australia.

She is the head writer and showrunner on Lingo’s New Animal, currently in development, as well as Jungle’s adaptation of Robbie Arnott’s novel, Flames.

Marieke has written for Matchbox’s Seven Types of Ambiguity and Nowhere Boys Series 3 and 4. Her other credits include writing on The Family Law, Mr & Mrs Murder, Spirited, Packed to the Rafters, Always Greener, Neighbours, and Something in the Air. She has also been a script consultant/editor on such series as Rosehaven, Please Like Me, Tomorrow Tonight, and the development of comedian Anne Edmonds’ Helen Bidou series.

Her hugely successful adaptation of Dario Fo’s play No Pay? No Way! premiered with Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House in February 2020 to rave reviews.

Marieke was also a co-creator, co-writer and co-producer on the critically acclaimed ABC comedy series, Laid series 1 and 2, for which she won the 2011 AWGIE for Best Comedy – Situation or Narrative.
She has penned regular columns for The Age, The Drum, and Frankie magazine, as well as features in The Saturday Paper and Spectrum.

In addition to writing, Marieke hosted the breakfast radio show on Triple J FM from 2007 – 2009 and was a regular presenter on ABC’s The Book Club for eleven years. She also co-curated and co-produced the ‘international literary phenomenon’ spoken word salon Women of Letters. The first of seven Women of Letters collection was released in October 2011 with Penguin Books. Her first collection of essays, You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead, was released in 2011 with Allen and Unwin.

In 2019 Marieke launched a brand-new monthly spoken word event in Melbourne with poet Emilie Zoey Baker titled ‘Better Off Said: Eulogies for the Living and the Dead’. She is a recipient of the 2015 Sidney Myer Fellowship.