About Jess

Jess Zlotnick is an author, playwright, and screenwriter. She lives and works on Gadigal land.

She graduated from the University of Sydney in 2019 with a double major in Gender Studies and Theatre and Performance Studies.

Jess is the author of ‘Lady, or Till the Water Runs Clear’, a speculative backstory for Lady Macbeth. The stage version was produced for the Sydney University Dramatic Society in 2016, and she is currently adapting the stage play into a nine episode limited series. Her screen and stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ is undergoing development in the Lost Kittens screenwriter’s group. She is a scriptwriter for audio erotica producer, Quinn, championing female pleasure with a focus on fantasy settings and atmosphere.

Jess is the Artistic Administrator & Company Manager at Belvoir Street Theatre. She recently completed an attachment via Screen Australia at Bunya Productions, where she worked as a Post Production Assistant on their upcoming adaptation of ‘Prima Facie’. She was the Public Programs and Ticketing Specialist at Sydney Theatre Company from 2023 - 2025.

Jess was a 2020 recipient of the Denis Diderot Artist-in-Residence award at the Chateau d’Orquevaux, France, and a 2024 recipient of the Lighthouse Arts Residency through the Hunter Writer’s Centre Newcastle. In 2026 Jess was selected for the Old Fitz Theatre’s Playwright Development course, through which she is developing her one-woman feminist adaptation of ‘American Psycho’, which she is (ill-advisedly) producing and performing for Sydney Fringe 2026.

Jess is passionate about diversity and challenging stereotypes through storytelling. She advocates for de-stigmatising female desire, unabashed romanticism, and the empathetic power of storytelling in all its forms.