About Alannah O'Sullivan

Alannah's career as an actress and scriptwriter has spanned more than twenty years, six continents and as many oceans.

Alannah has been captivating audiences since she first appeared on stage as a young girl singing with her mother and six sisters. She graduated from the University of Canterbury with a masters degree in English and a stream of professional acting engagements followed at New Zealand's leading theatres: The Court in Christchurch, Downstage and Circa in Wellington and the Mercury in Auckland. She won Best Actress accolades in all three cities.

At the same time she edited scripts for Radio New Zealand and adapted Spike Milligan's children's book, 'Badjelly, the Witch' as a stage show. 'Badjelly' remains in regular production to this day. This script holds the record for the most licensed script in New Zealand over the last twenty-five years. Contact info@playmarket.org.nz to license it.

Then came the partnership with John Cairney in 'Two For A Theatre', and 12 years touring the world. They took their shows, which John wrote and Alannah researched, from Wick in Scotland to Invercargill in New Zealand and a whole host of venues in between. They played the Speakers' Circuit in the United States, the ex-patriate Scots circuit in Canada and appeared under the umbrella of the British Council in the Far East. They invented 'Theatre At Sea' for P&O Cruises, and performed in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Norwegian Fiords, and en route from Southhampton to Auckland. Between them they developed thirty hours of material and did hundreds of shows. For her, no two shows were ever the same - she never knew what John was going to do next.

Alannah is also an experienced manager, producing all their shows as well as performing in them. Her production and management credits also include the Burns Musical and the Burns Musical Company Ltd (for Shanter Productions) and John Cairney & Company Ltd.

Since 1991, Alannah and John have been based New Zealand, operating under the banner of The Pennyfarthing Partnership.

Most recently Alannah has amassed a weight of experience as a scriptwriter in television. She has worked as editor, story-liner, dialogue writer and script consultant - for Seannachie Productions, Greenstone Productions, Communicado, Auckland University of Technology, Te Reo Productions, Marigold Films and South Pacific Pictures.

Alannah has served as President of the New Zealand Writers Guild (1999 - 2002). She also completed a term as President of the Writers Guild in Scotland.

At present she is writing scripts and developing her own projects.