Rebekka Schafferius
Rebekka is an AWGIE-nominated television writer who has spent the past decade pursuing her love of storytelling in Australia and the US across dramatic and factual formats. In her home state of Queensland, Sydney and Los Angeles, she has developed her craft under some of film and television’s great story tellers including Hollywood comedy veteran, Jerry Zucker (Ghost, Airplane!, My Best Friend’s Wedding), and Australian feature film producer, Todd Fellman (A Few Best Men, Jungle, The Portable Door).
Born in Tropical North Queensland, Rebekka was raised in a gregarious family of Lebanese immigrants with a penchant for embellishing stories and making each other laugh with their quick wit, fuelling her with love for a good yarn. Rebekka’s love for writing compelling stories deepened from the age of seven, when she lost her mother to cancer. Today, Rebekka’s original work focuses on coming-of-age narratives, the complexities of family dynamics and the strength of the human spirit to find light and humour in darkness.
Her highly relatable projects have been optioned by some of Australia’s most respected production companies including Fremantle Media and Beyond Entertainment. Her work has been nominated for an Australian Writers’ Guild AWGIE Award (2023), longlisted for an Australian Writer’s Guild Monte Miller Award (2020) and selected as a finalist in Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Impact Australia (2021) screenwriter accelerator program.
Rebekka’s broadcast credits span dramatic and factual genres. Titles include ABC’s scripted children’s series KANGAROO BEACH (scriptwriter, 2022) and VEGESAURS (scriptwriter, 2022 – 2023), Paramount + and Network Ten‘s popular documentary series, MIRROR MIRROR (development producer, 2021), Netflix‘s Emmy Award winning children’s series, BEAT BUGS (scripting associate, 2016 – 2018) and MOTOWN MAGIC (scripting associate, 2016 -2018), and Network Ten’s iconic children’s program TOTALLY WILD (writer/producer, 2013 – 2015).
Growing up in a place fringed by the glorious Great Barrier Reef and the ancient Daintree Rainforest, Rebekka developed a deep appreciation for the natural world. She has channelled this into writing and directing stories of our wildlife. Her natural history credits include Nine Network and Passion Distribution’s six-part wildlife series, AUSTRALIA’S WILD MOMENTS (series director/writer, 2024), Nine Network and NAT GEO’s TARONGA: WHO’S WHO IN THE ZOO (2024), ABC’s 23-part landmark nature series, AUSTRALIA: REMASTERED (writer/director, 2020) and SKY TV UK and ARTE’s EXTREME SNAKES (writer, 2022).
Alongside this work, Rebekka is currently pursuing opportunities to work in the drama, comedy and dramedy spaces.