AustLit

Television script-writer.

Ron Elliott began working in television as a director for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for whom he worked for some years. His work for the ABC includes directing episodes of Relative Merits (1986), a series that traces three months in the life of a radio journalist, and episodes of the thirteen-part The Last Resort (1988), following the dilapidated inheritance of three sisters, written by Louis Nowra, Gabrielle Lord, Leon Saunders, Bert Deling, Tim Gooding, and Johanna Pigott.

His other works as director include the short film The Last Straw (1990), set in a sperm bank and written by Jane Wilson-Hilton and Gabrielle O'Ryan; the short film Still Life, based around Vincent Van Gogh, written by Paige Gibbs and produced by the WA Academy of Performing Arts; episodes of children's adventure television series Ship to Shore (1993) and Adventures of the Bush Patrol (1996), for both of which he was also a script-writer; and the film Justice (1997), written and produced by Robert Roget.

Elliott had been writing occasional scripts for the programs on which he worked as director since the early 1990s, but in the mid-1990s, he began concentrating on full-time freelance script-writing, particularly on programs being produced in Western Australia's burgeoning film and television industry. His work as a script-writer since the mid-1990s has included not only Ship to Shore and Adventures of the Bush Patrol, but also episodes of The Gift (1997), Minty (1998), Fast Tracks (1998-1999), Wild Kat (2000), Southern Cross (2001), Ocean Star (2002), Parallax (2004), Streetsmartz (2005), and Time Trackers (2008). Many of these programs were produced by prolific Western Australia-based television producer Paul Barron.

Through independent, Perth-based production company Little Boy Pictures (founded in 2006 by Kenta McGrath and Hugh Thomson), Elliott has also acted as executive producer on short films Welcome to Pipe Mountain (2007, written and directed by Kenta McGrath) and Hole in the Ground (2008, written and directed by Kenta McGrath).

He has also lectured in screen writing and production at Curtin University.