Niki Aken is a multi-award-winning writer working across comedy and drama.

Niki has written on all three seasons of the popular and critically acclaimed ABC series The Newsreader, which won the 2021 AACTA for Best Drama Series and the TV Week Silver Logie Award for Most Outstanding Drama Series. In 2022, Niki’s episode depicting the Russell Street Bombing was nominated for the Best Screenplay in Television AWGIE. Season three is currently in pre-production.

Niki co-wrote SBS’ The Hunting, 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.

Niki wrote an episode and served as script producer on both seasons of the critically acclaimed comedy-drama series Upright (Foxtel/Sky UK), starring Tim Minchin. Upright won the 2020 AACTA Award for Best Comedy Series. Having worked previously with sketch-comedy troupe ‘Aunty Donna’ on their pilot Chaperones for Stan, Niki was attached as script producer to Netflix’ Gen-Z comedy series Why Are You Like This, which won the 2018 ABC Fresh Blood competition out of hundreds of entries, and subsequently ordered to full series. Why Are You Like This went on to win the 2021 Best Narrative Comedy AWGIE.

Niki was a Co-EP and development Script Producer on the SBS anthology series Erotic Stories, which debuted at SXSW Sydney. Her other credits include ABC’s Significant Others, ANZAC Girls, won an AWGIE for Best Adapted Miniseries, and also multiple series of both 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 film, television and unfinished craft projects.