Niki Aken is a multi-award-winning writer working across comedy and drama, who recently wrote an episode on the upcoming dramedy SUNNY NIGHTS (Stan), set for release in late 2025.

Niki has also written on all three seasons of the popular and critically acclaimed series THE NEWSREADER (ABC), which has received a series of accolades, notably the 2021 and 2024 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Award for Best Drama Series and the TV Week Silver Logie Award for Most Outstanding Drama Series. This production was also nominated for the 2022 and 2025 Logies in the Most Popular Drama and Best Drama categories respectively. In 2022, Niki’s episode depicting the Russell Street Bombing was nominated for an Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE) for Best Screenplay in Television.

Niki co-wrote THE HUNTING (SBS), which was the highest-rating commissioned drama in SBS history, winning Niki and co-writer Matthew Cormack the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Screenplay in Television for episode 3, as well as the 2020 AWGIE for Best Television Miniseries.

On both seasons of the critically acclaimed comedy-drama series UPRIGHT (Foxtel/Sky UK), starring Tim Minchin, Niki wrote an episode and served as script producer. UPRIGHT won the 2020 AACTA Award for Best Comedy Series. Having worked previously with sketch-comedy troupe ‘Aunty Donna’ developing their pilot CHAPERONES for Stan, Niki was attached as script producer to WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS (Netflix). The Gen-Z comedy was ordered to full series after winning the ABC Fresh Blood competition out of hundreds of entries, and thereafter took home the AWGIE for Best Narrative Comedy in 2021.

Niki was a Co-EP and development Script Producer on the anthology series EROTIC STORIES (SBS), which premiered at SXSW Sydney. Her other credits include ABC’s SIGNIFICANT OTHERS, ANZAC GIRLS – which won an AWGIE for Best Adapted Miniseries – and also multiple series of legal-thriller JANET KING. For her work on Nine Network’s UNDERBELLY, Niki and the writing team won two AWGIES for Best Adapted Miniseries.

Niki has volunteered on various Australian Writers’ Guild committees for over ten years. She is a founding member of the Guild’s Diversity and Inclusion committee, and she served on the AWGACS Board from 2020-2022. Niki resides in Melbourne and is currently in development on several television, film and unfinished craft projects.