About Shontell Leah Ketchell

Shontell Leah Ketchell is an Aboriginal (Kaanju Nation) and Torres Strait Islander (Badu & Mer Island) emerging screenwriter and producer from Cairns, Far North Queensland. In 2019 Shontell completed her Advanced Diploma in Screenwriting: Feature Film course at AFTRS.

Shontell was a part of the ABC sketch comedy series Black Comedy, season four writers’ workshop. Her first feature film screenplay, Adorkable, which Shontell wrote and is producing, secured development funding from Screen Queensland in 2019 and 2022, and more recently Screen Australia in 2023.

In 2021, she wrote and produced Naytive, a short documentary for the ABC, which won best documentary at the Cairns Understory Film Festival. She also, wrote, produced and featured in recently release short documentary Sistas in Mining, for SBS/NITV. She also wrote an episode on NITV children’s show Barrumbi Kids.

More recently, Shontell had the opportunity to associate produce and co-write on a comedy series, Gold Diggers, a KOJO Studios production on ABC. At present, Shontell is writing and producing on SBS Food program, Taste of the Tropics, script consulting on season 2 of ABC production Troppo and working in script development with Fremantle Media and Lone Star Productions on Legend of Kusa Kup.

Shontell’s long-term goal as a screenwriter and producer is to contribute to the representation of her people and share Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories from their diverse perspectives.

You can watch her Sistas in Mining documentary online.

About our Check In & Chat sessions

If you haven’t had the chance to attend yet, now is a great time to start. Even if you’re just joining in to listen, your presence is welcomed and appreciated.

Happening once every two weeks on Thursdays, the sessions follow the same format, but with different engaging topics and guests each time:

12:25 PM Zoom waiting room opens
12:30 PM Prompt start & introduction
12:35 PM Louise & guest in discussion
12:45 PM Participants contribute their questions & experiences
12:55 PM Summary & close

Register for one or more sessions below.