Jacob Hickey

Jacob started his career in BBC Current Affairs and Documentary and worked on many award-winning projects before moving to Australia. In 2009 Jacob wrote and directed the feature length documentary Inside the Firestorm for the ABC telling the story of Australia's worst bushfire disaster 'Black Saturday'. The documentary won the 2010 AFI Award for Best Direction in a Documentary. Other projects include the series Immigration Nation, on which he was both series producer and director, and Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta, on which he was series producer and writer. It won Gold and Silver Medals at New York Film Festivals International Television and Film Awards. In 2012 Jacob was the series producer, director and writer of Dirty Business - How Mining Made Australia for SBS. In 2013 Jacob joined Blackfella Films' Melbourne office as Head of Factual. Jacob was the writer and series producer of the acclaimed First Contact which won the 2015 TV Week Logie Award for Most Outstanding Factual Program. Other projects for Blackfella Films include 'big science' series DNA Nation, How 'Mad' Are You? which explored mental health in Austrlaia, and a second season of First Contact. Jacob was co-writer, with Amanda Blue, of feature length documentary Deep Water: The Real Story which investigated a spate of gay hate murders and shared the Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting at the 2018 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. In 2017 SBS broadcast the ratings hit series Filthy Rich & Homeless on which Jacob was the writer and series producer. In 2019 a second season of Filthy Rich & Homeless won the Silver World Medal at the 2019 New York Festivals International TV & Film Awards and the Gold Trophy for Reality TV at the 2019 Venice Film Awards. The third and final season won the 2021 BANFF World Media Festival International Rockie Award for Best Docuseries and the Gold Award for Documentary (Social Issues) at the 2021 New York Festivals TV & Film Awards. Jacob was the writer, series producer and series director on the major observational series for Addicted Australia for SBS, and also produced, with Darren Dale, the documentary Maralinga Tjarutja for the ABC which won the 2020 AACTA Award for Best Direction in Nonfiction Television and the Silver Award for Documentary (Human Rights) at the 2021 New York Festivals TV & Film Awards. In 2021, Jacob wrote and series produced the factual series Books That Made Us about Australian literature for ABC Arts, and co-wrote, with Amanda Blue, the feature documentary Step Into Paradise about Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson. He is currently working on an adaptation of Dark Emu for the ABC and is series producer on the historical series First Wars for SBS.