Benjamin Law is a Sydney-based screenwriter, author, journalist and presenter. His poignant, familial modern comedy play, Torch The Place, premiered at the Melbourne Theatre Company to great critical success at the beginning of 2020. Benjamin’s most recent television credit is the SBS Drama series New Gold Mountain, currently in post-production. New Gold Mountain portrays the Australian Gold Rush through the perspective of Chinese miners. Other recent television credits include Network Ten’s drama Sisters and the two-part documentary Waltzing the Dragon, which considers the ‘sweet and sour’ China-Australia relationship (ABC). Benjamin both developed and presented the documentary alongside his larger-than-life mother. The television adaptation of his first book The Family Law was created and co-written by Ben. The first season of The Family Law was the most-watched program on SBS in 2016. The Family Law returned for two further seasons, winning two Equity Ensemble Awards for Best Comedy Ensemble and a Screen Producers Association Award for Best Comedy. Ben was an associate producer on the documentary Deep Water: The Real Story, which details the gay hate crime epidemic that bloodied Sydney’s coastline in the 1980s and 90s. It was a companion piece to the Blackfella Films dramatized series Deep Water, starring Yael Stone and Noah Taylor. Ben holds a PhD in television writing and cultural studies. He is a celebrated author, having written the books The Family Law (2010) and Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East (2012), both of which were nominated for Australian Book Industry Awards. Ben co-authored the comedy Shit Asian Mothers Say (2014) with his playwright / screenwriter / performer sister Michelle. Benjamin is a frequent contributor to Good Weekend (The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age), frankie and The Monthly. Ben has written for more than 50 publications, with the especially notable “Moral Panic 101” published in the Quarterly Essay. |
