Gavin Strawhan

It seems that scriptwriter Gavin Strawhan has worked on almost every New Zealand show with two words in its title - from Jackson's Wharf and Mercy Peak through to Go Girls, Maddigan's Quest and Kaitangata Twitch.

Australian-born Strawhan studied biology at university in Adelaide, but ended up turning it into an honors degree in theatre direction and performance. After writing some political theatre, Strawhan headed to Sydney to score a job as a trainee script editor at soap giant Grundy Television.

Strawhan honed his craft on Grundy's long-running Neighbours, before emigrating to New Zealand, where he helped set up the writing department at Shortland Street. It was there he first worked with longtime writing partner Rachel Lang. The pair would create a run of shows together including Jackson's Wharf, Mercy Peak and a project based around undercover cop John Lawless, (played by Kevin Smith) which was ultimately made as a trio of tele-movies.

Strawhan also joined the writing team on 90s mini-series The Chosen, intrigued by the subversive idea of suggesting "that maybe a cult wasn't a bad alternative to growing up in an oppressive country town".

In the late 90s, he spent three years as head of development at John Barnett's South Pacific Pictures. It was an incredibly busy period: As well as helping develop a run of movies (including Crooked Earth, Whale Rider, and Jubilee) Strawhan was working with Rachel Lang on creating and scripting Jackson's Wharf, which centred around the rivalry between a small town policeman and his city slicker brother.

Lang and Strawhan's follow-up show Mercy Peak, premiered in 2001. Mercy's success would spawn 60 episodes, placing it amongst New Zealand's longest running drama shows. The ensemble series revolves around a doctor (Sara Wiseman) who moves to a small town medical practice. Strawhan worked on many of the episodes in the first series, one of which won best script at the 2002 Film and Television Awards. He also reteamed with Chosen scribe Maxine Fleming to help create another award winner, genre-bending kidult show Being Eve.

In 2000 Strawhan exited to London to become a development executive at multi-national company FremantleMedia (the new owners of Grundy Television). He then relocated to Berlin to develop two German TV dramas. Strawhan kept up his English ties after returning to New Zealand in 2003. 18 scripts from BBC drama Living It, set largely in a London playground, bear his name. Other shows aimed at younger viewers that Strawhan worked on in this period were period tale The Lost Children and Margaret Mahy fantasy Maddigan's Quest.

Strawhan had not stopped writing for adults entirely. He created the format for Prime's first police drama, Interrogation, and has contributed many scripts to Outrageous Fortune. He also took key roles behind the scenes on two female-skewed drama comedies: Burying Brian and Go Girls.

Originally Strawhan was set to assist originator Maxine Fleming on Brian, a serio-comic tale of four women and one dead husband. However, when Fleming unexpectedly became unavailable, Strawhan took on a larger role, writing most of the scripts and even getting a say in casting and design. The concept for the series has sold to a number of overseas territories, including American televison. The show won positive reviews from Sydney Morning Herald critic Michael Idato, who praised the show's writing and humour.

July 2010 saw the premiere of offbeat drama This is Not My Life, another show created by the Strawhan and Rachel Lang team, working with Jason Daniel. The show revolves around a man who wakes up one day and does not know his own name, nor his wife and children. Strawhan has argued that the show is set in a recognisable but different New Zealand, where personal and social information is controlled electronically, and open to manipulation.

Feature film Matariki will soon be released. Though Strawhan was part of the scrum of scribes behind Crooked Earth, Matariki arguably marks his true debut as a writer for feature films. Strawhan worked with Jubilee writer Michael Bennett through 20 drafts of the Matariki script, which also marks Bennett's feature debut as a director. The film involves five interwoven tales. The script for another Bennett/Strawhan feature - Prey of Birds - is waiting in the wings.