Harriet Riley

Harriet Riley is an Climate specialist and Screenwriter. She completed a B.A. Communication Studies in 2009 and went on to study Honours at ANU, and holds a Masters in Investigative Journalism from Columbia University.

Harriet is currently working as a Speechwriter for the UN Secretary-General. She has 15 years of experience in international affairs and the NGO sector consulting to organisations including WHO, Oxfam and the Gates Foundation on everything from refugees to renewable energy. Prior to her current role, she was Creative Lead at UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Agency. Her writing focuses on themes informed by her career in the world of environment and diplomacy. She worked on Years of Living Dangerously, James Cameron’s Emmy-winning series about climate change, and her comedy feature about climate activists is currently in development in Australia. She has been published in The Guardian, The Australian, The Diplomat, Island Magazine, Best Australian Essays and The Bloomsbury Nature Writing Anthology.

View Harriet's alumni profile Visit Harriet's website

Samuel Herriman

Samuel Herriman is a (Screen)writer and academic. Between 2012–2016, he completed the B.A. majoring in Communication and Media, and an Honours in Communication and Media. He went on to study a Master of Screen Arts in Screenwriting at the Australian, Film Television and Radio School, and a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. 

Fiona Maddock

Fiona Maddock is a freelance digital artist, multimedia designer and video editor. After completing her B.A. in Communication and Media Studies between 2015–2018, she went on to study Animation and Digital Art at North Metropolitan TAFE. Her career in media and communications has been diverse and has spread into two separate fields; freelancing as an artist for a game company and charity, and working as a video editor in the tourism, film, and animation industries.

Jesse Laurie

Jesse Laurie is an Award Winning Screenwriter, Script Editor, Lecturer. At UWA he completed the B.A. (Communication Studies), majoring in Communication and English from 2010–2012, and went onto further studies at ECU. Jesse's feature screenplay, "Zero", won the 2025 Australian Writers' Guild national screenplay competition – the John Hinde Award –for excellence in science-fiction screenwriting. In 2025 Jesse was also selected for Screenwest's prestigious Bill Warnock Talent Accelerator, receiving a $100k grant to secure placements with BBC Australia and Tony Ayres Productions/NBCUniversal.

Kodie Bedford

Kodie Bedford is a Screenwriter, Director, Playwright , and Executive Producer. She recently created, wrote and executive produced the darkly comedic crime series RECKLESS (BBC).  Her credits include Mystery Road, Squinters, Troppo and Firebite. Kody graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies), majoring in Communication and English in 2007. She went on to study a Masters of Creative Writing from the UTS, Sydney.

Find Kodie on:

• ABC
• IMDb
• RGM Artists

Yuri Cartland

Yuri Cartland is passionate about content, Perth and all things media. Between 2014–2018, he completed the B.A. majoring in Communication and Media, and an Honours in Communication and Media. He has been the Creative Director of Untitled Media since 2018. 

Visit Untitled Media here

Christina Chau

University lecturer, Perth

PhD (History of Art and Communication Studies)

Since completing her PhD, Christina has been working as a lecturer, first at UWA and now at Curtin University. She has published a book titled Movement, Time, Technology and Art and presented on ABC TV about contemporary art in Australia. Christina has also published academic articles on kinetic sculpture, contemporary art theory, post-internet aesthetics, robots, contemporaneity, Henri Bergson, and Gilles Deleuze. 

“What sticks with me the most are memories of the conversations that emerged during and after the tutorials. Through talking about the readings in the tutorials, I learned a lot about how to be a decent human being, but also how to engage with ideas that I found uncomfortable or challenging. I learned how to think, what to think about, and how to think through problems. I also learned how to have conversations with people that thought differently to me, without having a fight about it,” she says.

“I love that my career requires me to commit a lot of deep thinking time to my areas of expertise. I also love that academia is a lot more collaborative and social than I first thought. Being able to talk through ideas, theory, and ethics with colleagues and students is immensely nourishing.”

Photograph by Bo Wong