S. Shakthidharan

S. Shakthidharan is an Australian storyteller with Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. His plays Counting and Cracking (“One of the great Australian plays” – The Guardian), The Jungle and the Sea and The Wrong Gods have won critical, commercial and community acclaim. Counting and Cracking has toured extensively and won a New York Times Critics Pick.

Gather Up Your World In One Long Breath, is his debut book. It will be accompanied by a year-long, companion artwork with the Powerhouse Museum. Shakthi’s debut feature film The Laugh of Lakshmi is currently in production, coming to cinemas in 2027. He has plays, TV series and multi-disciplinary works in development. He’s the Director of Kurinji, was previously Director of Co-Curious, and was Founder and Artistic Director of CuriousWorks from 2003-2018. Shakthi is a Creative Australia and Sidney Myer Fellow, and a recipient of the Phillip Parson’s and Kirk Robson awards. In 2026 he won the prestigious global Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama.