Kirsty Budding is a writer, producer and actress based in Canberra, Australia.

Kirsty has a background in writing and producing for the stage, winning a number of local awards including the Canberra Area Theatre Award for Best Original Work for The Fairytale Channel and the Short+Sweet Festival Best Script Award for Brexit. She was the 2018 Winner of the ACT Writing and Publishing Award for Fiction for her debut anthology Paper Cuts: Comedic and Satirical Monologues for Audition or Performance.

In 2021, Kirsty completed the Professional Program in Producing with UCLA and the Industry Certificate in Script Assessment at AFTRS. In the same year, Kirsty won a CAPO MPS Travel and Tours Performers Award to fund travel to the USA where her screenwriting was featured in the Dallas International Film Festival Screenwriting Competition (Grand Prize Winner); Sherman Oaks Film Fest LA (Winner) and Hollywood Just4Shorts (Winner - Best Comedy).

In 2022, Kirsty was named a Finalist in the Atlanta Film Festival Screenwriting Competition for her sci-fi comedy short Harold, Electra and our Lord, David Attenborough. With the same script, Kirsty won the Houston Comedy Film Festival short comedy section, and two of her TV pilot scripts made the Top 5 in the Houston Dark Comedy Teleplay category.

Kirsty has twice made the Coverfly Red List and was named a 2022 Screenwriter to Watch by Event Horizon Films. She was a 2022 Runner Up for the John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science Fiction Writing and inducted into the Australian Writers’ Guild Pathways Showcase. Also in 2022, Kirsty’s feature film screenplay ‘Chelsea on Fire’ - a romantic comedy set during the Australian Bushfires - was selected for Scriptable by Queensland Writers Centre and she is currently working with a mentor from Ludo Studios - producers of hit cartoon “Bluey”.

Kirsty’s plays and monologues are used in schools locally and around the world, with her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice performed in British and Australian schools, and her collection of monologues “The 100” popular in the USA. Her plays have also been produced for radio with ArtSound FM, and several pieces were published in ArtSound’s 2025 anthology “Gertrude’s Sweetheart”.

Kirsty also acts in independent films, most recently Bus Trip (Sebastian Chan) - Winner of the Focus on Ability Film Festival; and horror short The Urn (Ash Gray) - Winner of the 2022 Sony Catchlight Film Festival Award. Through her company, she judges and/or sponsors a number of film festivals.

Kirsty owns and operates Budding Entertainment, a theatre company and talent agency.

SCREEN PRODUCERS AUSTRALIA | AUSTRALIAN WRITERS GUILD