Shakthi is a Western Sydney storyteller with Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. He’s a writer, director and producer of theatre and film, and composer of original music. His debut play Counting and Cracking (Belvoir and Co-Curious) received community, commercial and critical acclaim at the 2019 Sydney and Adelaide Festivals. The script won the Victorian Premier’s Literature Prize and the NSW Premier’s Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting; the production won seven Helpmann and three Sydney Theatre awards. Shakthi has a new commission with Sydney Festival, a number of new plays in development with Belvoir and a feature film in development with Felix Media. He’s the Artistic Director of Kurinji and Artistic Lead at Co-Curious. Co-Curious is a sister company to award-winning community arts company CuriousWorks, where Shakthi was the Founder and Artistic Director from 2003 to 2018. Shakthi was the inaugural Carriageworks Associate Artist, is currently a Belvoir Associate Artist and is a recipient of both the Phillip Parson’s and Kirk Robson awards.