Cirrus@Austlit

Script-writer and script editor.

Kristen Dunphy's earliest role in the film industry was as assistant to the director (Gillian Armstrong) on the 1987 film High Tide (written by Laura Jones). In an interview with the Australian in October 2012, she said of her start in the industry

I contacted a list of producers looking for work, including Sandra Levy who was producing the feature High Tide (1987), and she offered to take me on as director Gillian Armstrong's assistant. Shortly after the film was shot, Sandra was appointed Head of ABC TV Drama and she took me with her.

Her earliest scripts were for medical drama G.P., for which she began writing in 1992 (and for which she continued to write until 1996, writing at least eight episodes). In the same period, she was also writing scripts for crime drama Heartland (1994), children's puppet-based comedy The Ferals (1995-1995), and teen drama Heartbreak High (1995-1997).

In the late 1990s, she contributed scripts to legal drama Fallen Angels (1997), young-adult time-travel fantasy Mirror Mirror II (1997), crime drama Murder Call (1997-1998) and Wildside (1998-1999), and medical drama All Saints (1999).

In the early 2000s, she had a spate of working on crime dramas, with scripts for Water Rats (2000), at least ten episodes of White Collar Blue (2002-2003), and the script for telemovie BlackJack: Sweet Science (2004).

Since then, Dunphy has contributed scripts to teen surfing series Blue Water High (2006), adult drama Sea Patrol (2007), crime drama East West 101 (2007-2009), young-adult mystery-thriller Conspiracy 365 (2012), and crime drama The Straits (2012).

She has also worked as a script editor, including for White Collar Blue (2002), the telemovie Small Claims: White Wedding (2005), and Michael Brown's episode of Two Twisted ('Finding Frank', 2006).

Among her awards are an AWGIE Award (2012) for The Straits (shared with Jaime Brown, Louis Nowra, Blake Ayshford, and Nick Parsons), an AWGIE Award (2008) for East West 101 (shared with Michael Miller, Kris Mrksa, Michelle Offen, and Kris Wyld), and an AWGIE Award (2003) for White Collar Blue (for episode 14).

In 2012, Dunphy was named as the recipient of that year's Foxtel Fellowship, awarded at the AWGIE Awards in recognition of a 'significant contribution to the Australian cultural landscape made by television writing'.

Further Reference

'10 Questions: Kristen Dunphy, Screenwriter, 48'. Australian, 6 Oct. 2012. (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/questions-kristen-dunphy-screenwriter-48/story-e6frg8h6-1226486085422) (Sighted: 22/10/2012)