John Banas has enjoyed a prolific career spanning over four decades, with a significant presence in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States.
As early as 1984, he received a prestigious New Zealand industry award for Best Script, a testament to his exceptional writing skills. Furthermore, he has been honored with the Prix Italia for Best Educational Script, and has won the Australian Writers Guild Awards for Best Script in a Television Series on two separate occasions, in 1997 and 2001.
John's impressive body of work includes the Underbelly NZ Series - 'Land of the Long Green Cloud', as well as the telemovies 'Siege' and 'Safe House', which were both nominated for best dramas in the 2012 Screen Writers Awards, New Zealand. 'Siege' went on to win Best Drama at the NZ Television Awards and was voted the People's Choice for Best on The Box, as well as taking home a Golden Panda Award in China.
In addition, John's screenplay 'How To Murder Your Wife' won Best Comedy at the 2015 New York International Film Festival and the C21 Drama Award for best television drama in Britain. Throughout his career, he has written over 200 hours of television, including six telemovies based on true stories.
John's work has been published in both Australia and New Zealand, and he has credits as a scriptwriter, director, and producer on numerous award-winning shows, including 'City Homicide', 'Headland', 'All Saints', 'Blue Heelers', 'Stingers', 'Murder Call', 'Water Rats', and the Miss Phryne Fisher Murder Mysteries.
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to Australian society through his writing for television, John was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in the 2001 Queen's New Years Honours List. He currently resides and works in Brisbane.
