Gerard Lee

Gerard Lee (23 November 1951 – 25 November 2025) was an Australian screenwriter, novelist, and director. He was best known for his contributions to Australian independent cinema and for his long-standing collaboration with Jane Campion.

Early life and education Gerard Lee was born in Melbourne in 1951 and brought up in Brisbane in the 1960s in the inner southern suburb of Dutton Park.

Career Lee started as a poet and drummer (including sitting in as the drummer for the first performance by Brisbane band, The Go-Betweens). It was released in the US in 2018, produced by Simon Baker (also director/actor/producer) and Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad).

Lee had bee working for many years on a script, titled Persian Blue, about an Aboriginal unscrupulous opportunist who convinces a luckless outback community he is a mystic from India sent to save them. Lee could not find an Aboriginal co-writer and script supervisor, as required by the protocols of Creative Australia for First Nations people's stories, even if fictional, so he self-published the story as a novel, The Big Galah, in 2024.

Books Manual for a Garden Mechanic (1976) (Ragman Productions, Robert Kenny, Melbourne) Pieces for a Glass Piano (1978), True Love and How to Get It (1985), Troppo Man (1990), a comedy novel set in Ubud, Bali. Sweetie: The Screenplay (1991), Eating Dog: Travel Stories (1994), The Big Galah (2024) A script novel (Scrovel) discussing themes of identity, belief and truth, set in outback Australia

Television Top of the Lake (2013), a seven-hour drama serial, set in the South Island of New Zealand, co-created and co-written with Jane Campion. Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017) a seven-hour drama set in Sydney, Australia co-written with Jane Campion.

Short films Passionless Moments (1983), co-written and co-directed with Jane Campion

Feature films Sweetie (1989), co-written with Jane Campion All Men Are Liars (1995), writer/director My Mistress (2013), writer/producer Breath (2014) writer