Jon Bell

Jon Bell is an Aboriginal Australian screenwriter and director. He is known for his work on many television series, including The Gods of Wheat Street, Redfern Now and Cleverman; many short films; and for his debut feature film, The Moogai, released in 2024.

Early life Jon Bell's father was from the town of Peak Hill, in New South Wales. and Yaegl man.

Career Bell has written extensively for television. His 2015 children's television Ready for This earned international recognition. Two Big Boys (2007); The Chuck In (2013), which screened at the Sydney Film Festival and the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto; );

The horror film The Moogai, released in 2024, was Bell's first feature film as a writer. Developed from his earlier short film of the same name released in 2020, the film explores themes including racism, The film features an evil spirit ("Moogai" is a Bundjalung word meaning "bad spirit", similar to "boogie man", or Featherfoot) that takes children from their parents. Bell said, about his short film, that psychological horror was "the best fit to resemble the difficulty Aboriginal people have faced in the past and are facing due to the ongoing effects of colonisation".

Recognition and awards The Gods of Wheat Street won a Screen Producers Award for Mini-Series of the Year, and Redfern Now won several awards.

In 2021, The Moogai won the Grand Jury Prize in the Midnight Shorts category at SXSW,

The feature The Moogai won the Audience Award for Best Feature at Sydney Film Festival, as well as the prestigious CinefestOZ Film Prize.