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Bio

Tanya M. Wheeler says she feels like she has lived two lives. The one before she discovered screenwriting as a passion, and the life lived after.The Before Life included marriage, motherhood, and teaching. Tanya Wheeler was married for thirteen years and is now divorced. Her many years lived overseas in the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia and England, were spent travelling, teaching, learning, and growing as a person. Now, all of that life experience is grist for the writing mill, allowing the prolific screenwriter to produce ideas for feature films and TV series.Pursuing a screenwriting career from New Zealand has not always been easy, but Tanya credits technology with her ability to work with producers in London, Singapore, Sydney, Los Angeles and Wellington without too much difficulty. Nowhere is more than 24 hours' flight away, so work becomes a way to rack up the air miles, while maintaining the day-to-day lifestyle of New Zealand for the children.[2016] November - Tanya attended the NZ Web Festival 2017 as a finalist with her Children's Web Series, Reset (2016). Reset was launched at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival in June 2016 and launched on the CyberSmarties platform in Ireland in January 2017. Tanya headed to Cannes as one of six international finalists in the MipTV Digital Short Form Content for Children Competition with Reset (2016) in March 2017. Meeting with commissioners from Disney and the BBC and others at MipTV 2017.[2019] - Tanya wins Best Script, Best Play, and the show wins Best Actress at Short + Sweet Auckland 2019 with the short stage-play, 'It Happens to a Lot of People' about a stillbirth.[2019] - Tanya's short film screenplay, 'The Middle Wife' is runner up in the Short Screenplay Competition at the New Orleans Film Festival 2019.[2019] November - Tanya attended the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2019 and the Power Of Inclusion WIFT Summit in Auckland in 2019, and the SPADA conference in Auckland 2019 as an emerging producer.