Anna McGuckin is an early career screenwriter who made her creative debut by performing solo musicals for her unwilling family. The impact of her performances was so profound that they are still a topic of discussion.

“A young Meryl Streep.” – Her Mum

“The best part was the end.” – Her brother.

Never having let go of her passion for storytelling, Anna wrote and directed the short film Love Club at nineteen. The film was selected at multiple national and international film festivals and took home People's Choice at the Australian Independent Film Festival (2021).  In a review by Theatre Haus, the film was described as “…reminiscent of Great Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’…an authentic and elegant constructed piece, illustrating the difficult journey to self-love and acceptance after experiencing trauma.”

After this, Anna left her small country town (Brisbane) and moved to Sydney, where she was selected to undertake a Masters of Screenwriting at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). The intensive two-year course saw Anna develop her comedic voice, collaborative skills, and a slate of long-form television projects. Recently, her unproduced 8 x 30-minute comedy, Next Stop, was longlisted alongside fourteen other writers for the Australian Writers’ Guild Emerging Writers’ Award.   

Currently, Anna is doing development assistant work for award-winning screenwriter Vanessa Alexander (The Great, Vikings: Valhalla, Wrong Girl), note-taking for writers’ rooms and developing a 6 x 10-minute comedy web series with Sydney Film Festival selected producer Freya Brunning.