Alison Nisselle


Alison Nisselle was an Australian writer and producer best known for co-creating the crime drama TV series Phoenix and Janus, creating the children's TV series Zoo Family and writing the feature films Curtin, Healing and Parer's War.

Career

Before beginning her career as a filmmaker, Nisselle worked as a journalist for the Herald Sun and Channel 7 and then as a military researcher on period drama TV series The Sullivans. While working on The Sullivans, Nisselle's depth of research on cryptographic techniques employed by the classified Z Special Unit resulted in an inadvertent breach of the Official Secrets Act.
Nisselle drew local and international acclaim for her role as co-creator and writer of the groundbreaking crime dramas Phoenix and Janus, which depicted complex and realistic relationships between police and criminals and has been identified as an early forerunner to later dramas like The Wire.
Nisselle worked as a screenwriter, producer, script editor and script producer across a career spanning over four decades, drawing particular praise for the research-driven realism and accuracy she brought to her work.

Awards and legacy

Awards and commendations for works created or written by Nisselle include TV Week Logie Awards for Phoenix, Janus and Curtin and a Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Healing. In 2016, Nisselle received the inaugural Jan Sardi Award as part of Film Victoria's 2016 Screen Leader Awards for her significant achievement as a screenwriter and was recognised in the 2018 [Queen's Birthday Honours (Australia)|2018 Queen's Birthday Honours] with a Medal of the Order of Australia.
Following her death in November 2023, the Australian Writers' Guild released a statement praising Nisselle as "...a towering figure among the generation of writers without whom today's film and television industry would not exist. She will be remembered not only for her vast and varied body of work, and her numerous accolades and awards, but also for her warmth and wit. She was a brilliant writer, editor, creator, producer and, to many of us, a wise and generous mentor."