Shirley Pierce

One of the most prolific writers in Australia, Shirley has worked on films that have had a cumulative box office of over a half a billion dollars. In ten years of writing for Walt Disney Studios, Shirley worked on over two dozen projects ranging from features Dinosaur, Home on the Range and Meet the Robinsons to the Holocaust drama Misha. The short John Henry, which she wrote for Disney, won international film festivals and was shortlisted in its category for the Academy Awards. Her screen adaptation of the opera Aida was source material for Elton John's successful Broadway production. Having just delivered a legal drama for Full Circle Productions, Shirley is writing a TV mini-series for Filmgraphics. Previously, she delivered a wartime romance for Hard Rock Entertainment, co-wrote an adaptation of a Tuscany romance for Intomedia. She also delivered a rewrite of a millennial love story for Radioactive Pictures which has just picked up her romantic-comedy, Mating Game, for production in 2022. Shirley wrote and produced the short film No Means which was an official selection at five international film festivals including festivals in Los Angeles, Melbourne and New York. She also wrote and co-produced the successful anti-bullying music video Free You Be You which was nominated for a Heart of Gold award and a finalist in the Grand Indiewise Film Festival. Shirley wrote for networks ABC and the Nine Network plus producers Trish Lake, Matt Carroll and Chris Brown. Shirley's TV movies include the Lena Horne Story for ABC, Black Entertainment Television's thriller Incognito, TNT's Passing Glory for Quincy Jones and family drama Colour of Rage. Shirley has written for studios in the U.S., Australia, Japan and Spain. She has developed projects for MGM and Sony Pictures. Shirley wrote romantic drama For Real for New Millennium Studios and the urban love story How to Make Your Man Behave. Other credits include the urban drama Hothouse Flowers, the TV drama Kaleidoscope for Caravel Pictures, the story for thriller Murder on the Reef for Wonderland Media and a book adaptation of romantic novel, Seducing Mr. Maclean. Shirley has developed projects for Stephen J. Cannell, Fox Television, NBC, Proctor and Gamble, Hanna Barbera, Crawfords and the Australian Children's Television Fund. She has also lectured on screenwriting at film festivals, film schools and universities.