Game-Changers: Beau Willimon (USA)

Beau Willimon is the creator and screenwriter of the award-winning Netflix series House of Cards. Set in Washington DC, House of Cards is described as a “wicked political drama that penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex, and corruption in modern American politics.” Starring Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey, the show is the first original series developed and distributed exclusively by and on Netflix to rave critical and viewership reviews.

Beau’s play Farragut North had its world premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York in November 2008. It recently had its West Coast premiere at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles starring Chris Pine. He is a recipient of the Lila Acheson Wallace Juilliard Playwriting Fellowship, two-time winner of the Lincoln Center Le Comte du Nouy Award, the Seymour Brick Memorial Playwriting Prize, winner of the 2005 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest, and was a 2008 Playwright-in-Residence at the Donmar Warehouse in London.

Beau is currently working on commissions for the Manhattan Theatre Club and the National Theatre of Great Britain. He has written films for Warner Brothers and Fox 2000, and will soon begin work on a new film for Summit to star Sam Worthington.

A resident of Brooklyn, Beau holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Image credit: Adam Amengual

Leigh Sales is an award-winning author and journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and currently anchors 7.30. 

Until 2011, Leigh Sales anchored the prestigious Lateline program, interviewing major figures including Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger. 

From 2001 to 2005, she was the ABC's Washington Correspondent, covering stories including the aftermath of September 11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2004 Presidential election and Hurricane Katrina. 

From 2006 to 2008, Leigh was the ABC's National Security Correspondent, before joining Lateline. 

In 2005, Leigh won a Walkley Award, Australia's highest journalism honour, for her coverage of Guantanamo Bay and the case of David Hicks. 

Detainee 002 was released to widespread critical and commercial success in 2007, winning the prestigious George Munster Award for Independent Journalism for its assiduous investigation, quality writing and balanced reporting. The New York Review of Books lauded Detainee 002 for revealing new information about US policy at Guantanamo Bay. Australian reviewers described the book as astutely paced and absorbing (The Melbourne Age) and masterfully done, scrupulously fair and forensically accurate (The Australian Literary Review).

Leigh's writing has been published in The Monthly, The Bulletin, The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Diplomat. One of her essays was included in The Best Australian Political Writing of 2007.  

Her second book, On Doubt, was published in 2009 as part of Melbourne University Publishing's Little Books on Big Ideas series. 

Leigh is a sought-after public speaker and has appeared at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, the Sydney Institute, the National Press Club, the Australian Institute of International Affairs and the Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne Writers Festivals.  

She has a Masters in International Relations and a Bachelors in Journalism.