About the author
ANDREW UPTON was born in Sydney in 1966, the youngest of three children to John, a former navigator in Mosquitoes with the RAF during WWII and later a G.P., and Patty, an Australian-born Nurse, from a big Catholic family.
He is a writer whose career has been in theatre, film and television. His theatre work includes the original plays Hanging Man and Riflemind. He has also written a number of adaptations of classics including Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. As a Writer and Director, he led The Sydney Theatre Company (STC) for eight years, first as co-Artistic Director from 2008 to 2012 alongside Cate Blanchett, then as sole Artistic Director from 2013 to 2015. During this time the company ran annual seasons across four Sydney venues that resulted in many national and international tours, with productions that toured in Europe and the USA including his adaptations of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and The Present on Broadway as well as his own productions of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (Barbican) and Eugene O’Neil’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night. (Portland).
Whilst Co-Artistic Directing The STC, Upton was engaged as a writer, at the heart of a significant dramatic project at the UK’s National Theatre; creating a series of adaptations over five years with The Director Howard Davies that brought British audiences productions of lesser-known plays written in the dynamic revolutionary landscape of early 20 th -century Russia. This included works by Maxim Gorky (Philistines and Children of the Sun) and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard.
Passionate advocates for sustainability, Upton and Blanchett initiated the transformation of STC’s home into a sustainability hub, featuring Australia’s second-largest rooftop solar array, and the award-winning Greening the Wharf program. Their commitment to access and education extended to co-developing in-school professional learning programs. Since leaving STC he has returned to the company as a freelance writer with adaptations of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (2017) and The Seagull (2024).
Most recently he has been a principal of the production company Dirty Films. As Producer, his credits include The New Boy (dir. Warwick Thornton), Shayda (dir. Noora Niasari), Fingernails (dir. Christos Nikou), and Stateless (dir. Emma Freeman and Jocelyn Moorhouse). Additionally, Upton co-created and produced the Audible Original podcast series Climate of Change, focussed on approaching climate change through solutions-based initiatives and conversations