RICHARD BARRETT taught for several years before writing his first play, The Heartbreak Kid. He won a NSW Literary Award Fellowship in 1989 and an Australia Council Writers’ Fellowship the same year. The Heartbreak Kid was made into a feature film in 1992 and Barrett’s adaptation was voted Best Screenplay at the 1992 Montreal Film Festival. A spin-off television series called Heartbreak High screened in more than thirty countries including the United States and Britain.Other plays include Favourite Names for Boys, Words of One Syllable, and Vital Signs. Barrett was a consultant on the film The Sum of Us (1992), and is involved in the development of a feature film along with producers Michael Peyser and Gia Carides.