Gerard Lee


Gerard Lee was an Australian screenwriter, novelist, and director. He was best known for his contributions to Australian independent cinema and for his long-standing collaboration with Jane Campion.

Early life & Education

Gerard Lee was born in Melbourne and brought up in Brisbane in the 1960s in the inner southern suburb of Dutton Park. Lee began writing for The Telegraph newspaper as a cadet at the age of 16, but he later attended the University of Queensland, the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and, many decades afterwards, Queensland University of Technology.

Career

Lee started as a poet and drummer. He later moved to fiction and travel writing, before focusing on writing for film and television.
As a prose writer, Lee published two novels, a collection of short stories and a collection of travel stories, all with University of Queensland Press. The 'Oxford Companion to Australian Literature' stated of Lee in a commentary on his first novel, "True Love and How to Get it", "...a witty writer with a deceptively naive narrative style, Lee frequently satirises contemporary Queensland lifestyles". His second novel, Troppo Man, set in Ubud, Bali, was shortlisted for the Vogel's Young Writers Award.
In the 1980s, Lee met Jane Campion at AFTRS and later co-wrote her feature debut, Sweetie, which won Best Screenplay at the Australian Film Institute Awards, a Camera d'Or at Cannes, and many other awards. It was screened internationally and is now part of The Criterion Collection.
Lee's own feature film All Men Are Liars, set in the Queensland cane fields, which he wrote and directed, opened the Sydney Film Festival in 1995 and won awards internationally.
Lee produced and wrote the screenplay for the film My Mistress, starring Emmanuelle Beart and Harrison Gilbertson, which was released November 2014 and sold in many territories. It is the story of a relationship between a 16-year-old boy and a 40-something S&M mistress.
As a television writer, Gerard Lee was the co-writer with Jane Campion of the successful mini-series Top of the Lake, which garnered eight Emmy Nominations for the first series.
He was also the principal screenwriter of the film Breath adapted from the novel of the same name by Tim Winton. It was released in the US in 2018, produced by Simon Baker and Mark Johnson.

Death

Lee died on November 25, 2025.

Books

  • Manual for a Garden Mechanic
  • Pieces for a Glass Piano,
  • True Love and How to Get It,
  • Troppo Man, a comedy novel set in Ubud, Bali.
  • Sweetie: The Screenplay,
  • Eating Dog: Travel Stories,
  • The Big Galah A script novel discussing themes of identity, belief and truth, set in outback Australia

    Television

  • Top of the Lake, a seven-hour drama serial, set in the South Island of New Zealand, co-created and co-written with Jane Campion.
  • Top of the Lake: China Girl a seven-hour drama set in Sydney, Australia co-written with Jane Campion.

    Short films

  • Passionless Moments, co-written and co-directed with Jane Campion

    Feature films

  • Sweetie, co-written with Jane Campion
  • All Men Are Liars, writer/director
  • My Mistress, writer/producer
  • Breath writer