Warren Coleman

Warren Coleman is an Australian writer, director and actor.

For Kennedy Miller Mitchell he co-wrote and co-directed the Academy Award-winning animated feature Happy Feet and co-wrote Happy Feet Two for director George Miller. He co-wrote and co-directed the play Buzz at Belvoir St, one of Sydney’s most celebrated theatre companies. He tour-directed the Australian productions of Jill Soloway (Transparent)’s The Real Live Brady Bunch and for the show’s Broadway creator Michael Grief, Rent in Sydney and Melbourne. He was dramaturg on Gale Edwards’ State Opera of South Australia production of Nixon In China and directed The Venetian Twins and The Mystery Of Irma Vep for the State Theatre of South Australia.

Warren originally met co-writer and long-time collaborator Stephen Abbott in Newcastle as part of the Castanet Club. The duo would tour as part of the Castanet Club all around Australia and then to the Edinburgh Festival, appearing in the feature film The Castanet Club: A Movie You Can Dance To (directed by Neil Armfield). In 2007 Warren and Steve regrouped to write a feature screenplay based on Linda Jaivin’s comic character novel The Infernal Optimist, with Screen Australia support, which won the Lorne Film 2015 Screenwriter’s Award, and was runner-up in the 2015 AWG/Adelaide Film Festival’s INSITE awards. The script won a reading at the AFTRS/AWG Script Showcase in 2017. Screen NSW also supported their feature screenplay Birdbrain, loosely based on Steve’s ABC radio podcast, with producer Amanda Higgs.

Soon they had a television series in development for one of Australia’s most successful TV producers, John Edwards, and the Nine Network – as well as story development work for Google. Steve and Warren also developed the feature Birdbrain (for Screen NSW and producer Amanda Higgs), the Cold War comic thriller  The Day We Lost the H-Bomb, as well as The Legend of the Underzoo for Canadian animation house Arc Productions, which Warren is attached to direct. Their television series Just Can’t Get Enough was developed for John Edwards and Imogen Banks at Southern Star and the Nine Network.

The duo are also script editors on the Picture Works Australia feature White Flesh for producer Tayyab Madni. Their children’s live-action feature Stripey was selected for Screen Australia’s Family Film Initiative workshop. An animated feature script, Super Space Rabbits, is in development and they are collaborating with Hoodoo Gurus mastermind Dave Faulkner on the book of a musical based on They’re a Weird Mob. Warren and Steve have developed their feature Dear Evelyn through Scripted Ink, which they will produce and Warren will direct.

Warren’s writing credits also include Red Star, shortlisted for the New York Dramatists Playwright Awards, and The Castanet Club: A Movie You Can Dance To in which he also appeared. Directing credits include the podcast sitcom Hyperbole Towers for City of Sydney Council, The Mystery Of Irma Vep for the State Theatre Company of South Australia, Jack (Sacred Fools Theater, Los Angeles), Buzz, in which he also starred (Belvoir St Theatre), Tall Dog and the Under Poppy (The Studio, Sydney Opera House), Effie….Just Quietly (SBS TV), The Venetian Twins (State Theatre Company of South Australia).

Projects on file