Ned Manning is a writer, actor and teacher. He has written many plays for adults and young people. Among his published plays are Us or Them, Milo, Close to the Bone and Luck of the Draw as well as short plays in the anthologies Short Circuit and No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames. Other plays for adults include Kenny's Coming Home and Last One Standing. His latest play, Tsunami, was shortlisted for the STC's Patrick White Award in 2015. Ned's plays for young people include Alice Dreaming, Gods of War, Women of Troy (adapted from Euripides' original drama, The Trojan Women) and Shakespeare for Australian Schools. He was nominated for an AWGIE for Romeo and Juliet Intensive, a play for young people that moves between Shakespeare's world and contemporary Australia. The script was written for The Bell Shakespeare Company's Actors at Work program, and toured all over Australia. His radio adaptation of Women of Troy was nominated for the Prix Marulic Festival of Radio Drama in Croatia in 2013. Ned's first work of nonfiction, Playground Duty, is a celebration of the teaching profession and a survival guide for young teachers. As an actor, Ned has appeared in some of Australia's most loved film, television and theatre productions including: Looking for Alibrandi, Offspring, The Shiralee, Bodyline and Aftershocks. He starred in the 1980's cult classic Dead End Drive-In. His latest appearance was in the 2014 feature film, The Menkoff Method. Ned has worked as a teacher and dra

"Kenny’s Coming Home is a shining example of community theatre [...] The political agenda of Ned Manning’s play is serious: the loss of humanist ideals, the sacrifice of principles to pragmatism, but the message that comes through the music and the production is that it’s all in the cause of a foot-tapping, broad-grinning, hand-clapping good time." -- Bob Evans, Sydney Morning Herald (1991)