John Banas is a writer, director, actor and teacher who has, for over forty years, worked extensively in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. He has received New Zealand industry nominations for Best Actor (Stage and TV) and in 1984 was voted Best Scriptwriter. He is also a recipient of the Prix Italia for Best Educational Script and, in 1997 and 2001 won the Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Script in a Television Series. He also won Best Script in the NZ TV Awards for his work on the multi award winning TV feature Siege.