Elizabeth Coleman

Author

Elizabeth Coleman is an author, screenwriter and playwright, who first came to public attention with her wonderfully dark comedy, It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To), which premiered at the 1993 Melbourne Comedy Festival and broke La Mama’s box office records. It’s My Party has since attracted hundreds of productions, including a 1999 New York production starring F. Murray Abraham, and a twentieth anniversary National Tour in 2013. It was first published by Currency Press in 1997, in The La Mama Collection – Six Plays for the 1990s.

Elizabeth’s second full-length play, Secret Bridesmaids’ Business, was a smash hit in Melbourne and Sydney in 1999 before embarking on a national tour in 2000, and being re-staged in Melbourne in 2009. Secret Bridesmaids’ Business was adapted into a telemovie produced by Linda House for ABC Television in 2003, and an eight-part series for Seven Studios in 2019. It was first published by Currency Press in 1999 and 2000, before being re-published in Secret Bridesmaids’ Business and It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To), Two Plays by Elizabeth Coleman in 2003, which has since been reprinted four times.

Elizabeth’s two other full-length plays, This Way Up and Almost With You, were also published by Currency Press.

Elizabeth is also a prolific screenwriter. As well as the television adaptations of Secret Bridesmaids’ Business, she’s written for many drama series including Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, SeaChange and Wanted. She also co-created and wrote the hit ABC drama series Bed of Roses, with Jutta Goetze.

Elizabeth’s first novel, Losing the Plot, was published by Allen and Unwin in 2019. Her second novel, A Routine Infidelity, is the first book in a series about private investigator Edwina 'Ted' Bristol. The second novel in the series, A Dance with Murder was recently released on January 3rd 2024. Published by Pantera Press.

For screenwriting and theatrical enquiries, please contact us via email or on (02) 9319 7199.