ARTISTIC DIRECTOR – OzAsia Festival EXECUTIVE PRODUCER – Contemporary Asian Australian Performance

Annette is a writer, broadcaster, actor, producer and theatre-maker.

In an extensive career that has ranged across radio, television, publishing and theatre, her work has always been about the exploration of ideas through the arts – such as music through The Noise and Studio 22, experimental arts and film on Eat Carpet and Imagine. As an actor she was nominated for an AFI award for her supporting role in Clara Law’s feature film Floating Life, as a writer she contributed to anthologies such as Growing up Asian in Australia edited by Alice Pung, Grandma Magic edited by Janet Hutchinson, and co-authored the award-winning Banquet – Ten Courses to Harmony, exploring the ways in which the Chinese integrated into Australian society through food.

Since 2013 Annette has been Executive Producer of Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP) where she has been highly influential in forging professional pathways for Asian Australian artists, and developing compelling new works that bring contemporary Asian Australian stories to festival stages. These include The Serpent’s Table (Sydney Festival 2014), Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens (Darwin Festival, OzAsia Festival 2014); In Between Two (Sydney Festival 2016, Melbourne and OzAsia Festivals 2017); The Backstories which she co-directed with William Yang (Adelaide Festival 2017) and most recently Double Delicious (Sydney Festival 2020 and Asia TOPA).

In 2020 she was appointed Artistic Director of OzAsia Festival, Australia’s leading contemporary arts festival engaging with Asia, produced by the Adelaide Festival Centre.

Annette currently serves on the board of Sydney Theatre Company, the advisory board of the Australia China Institute of Arts and Culture (ACIAC) at Western Sydney University, and is a member of the Asian Producers Platform.