About me -
Geneva is a Western-Sydney-born-and-raised writer with a passion for illuminating the magic in everyday moments.
I was born in Penrith (a once-miserable town lovingly referred to as 'The Riff') on my mother's birthday (a terrible gift). As soon as I could talk, I became obsessed with storytelling, collecting the nonsense yarns that my parent's friends told at dinner parties and building upon them with my imaginary friends as bedroom marionettes.
Fast-forward to my seventeenth year of being alive, I dropped out of high school to pursue a career in the music business. So I did that for a bit. I was a booker for some of Sydney's best music venues, worked in a big agency in Martin Place, and toured a UK band called Crywank in 2017 and 2019. You can read more about my music industry stuff here. I still toured Crywank again in 2025 and it was a smash hit. We sold out shows and played at legendary venues like the Corner Hotel, Oxford Art Factory and many more.
In 2020 I decided to go back to university and took up a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English. However, I quickly realised my passion for writing and societal analysis and changed my majors to Creative Writing and Sociology (the least employable majors you can take at any university. Yay me!).
Uni brought me back to my childhood bedroom marionettes, and I learnt the basics of writing from some of Western Sydney's best authors and storytellers. In 2021 I was selected to be a part of the Writing Zone, a prestigious programme organised by the Writing and Society Research Centre, which connected me with incredible writers including Felicity Castagna, George Haddad, Kate Fagan and Melina Marchetta. I was also selected to be a member of Hatch, WSU's first undergraduate writing group. Then, in 2022, I was awarded a fellowship at the Varuna Writer's House, and I used my time there to write and develop various concepts for film.
In 2023 I completed my undergraduate and was awarded the Dean's Medal (woohoo). I spent some time at Screen Producers Australia and now I'm taking some time away from full-time work to focus on creative projects. If you're looking for a writer, I'm your gal - send me an email: hello@genevavalek.com
Projects in Development-
The Ozempic Diaries - Stageplay
When a mother is forced to move into her daughter’s share house, will the two be able to survive their deep divides on everything from the correct way to use a tea towel to whether Peter Dutton is actually a lizard in a flesh suit, or will they literally rip each other’s hair out in the cockroach-filled kitchen? The Ozempic Diaries points a crooked finger at the modern body positivity movement and asks us to question everything we’ve come to think about the reality of plus-size living and politics. An excerpt of the play will be performed at Supper Club as part of the National Theatre of Parramatta's Heartland Festival in July 2025.
Gin & Anchovies - Short Film
G&A is a short film about a woman, her dying dog and a magical afternoon that allows them to commune in human form.
Parle A Ma Main - Short Film
Talk to the hand, or Parle A Ma Main (I still can't tell if the French is too pretentious), is a short film about a woman whose inner critical voice speaks to her from her own hand as though it were a sock puppet.
Bingo, Bitch! - Stageplay
Maddie is 29 turning 17, and with her $400 Newtown rent and the $9.50 Starbucks she can't seem to stop buying, she's found herself broke. A birthday weekend for her wealthy 71-year-old Grandma seems like the perfect time to ask, nay beg, for a much-needed cash injection, despite the fact that Maddie isn't talking to her own Mum, Joy, who will definitely be there. A spanner is thrown into the works when Linda, Maddie's grandma, turns up 40 kilos lighter than she was 6 months before. This play seeks to unpack the intergenerational attitudes toward weight that have plagued my life and informed the way that I feel about my body, whilst analysing the ways that trauma and self-hatred are passed down in families like hot potatoes.
Milly and the Music - TV Series - View the Pitch Deck
Based on my own weird, horrible and fabulous experience as a teenager, this TV show aims to unearth the horrors and pleasures of being anything-but-a-cisgendered-white-man in the Australian music industry.
send me an email if you'd be interested in reading any of these works in progress