Talisha Elger is an award-winning film director, writer, and photographer from Ipswich, Australia. She holds an MFA in Screenwriting from the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles. Talisha completed her BA in Writing and Film/Television at the University of Queensland with distinction and spent an academic quarter at UCLA. During her time at UCLA, she studied Screenwriting, The Art and Technique of Filmmaking, Television Studies, and Entertainment Economics, earning a spot on the Dean’s Honors List and a screenwriting mentorship with her professor, Linda Voorhees, the founder of ProPath Screenwriting.

Talisha's formal education also includes an Advanced Diploma of Screen (Film & Television) and a Certification in Photo-imaging from Southbank Institute of Technology. In addition to writing and directing, Talisha has over 15 years of experience in the Film and TV industry, working in costume, production design, assistant art direction, script supervising, stills photographer, and as a director’s assistant on feature narratives, feature documentaries, and shorts. She has also worked for The Radmin Company, a Los Angeles-based literary management company, providing script coverage and working in casting as an assistant for Victoria Hoffman Casting LA, and as a freelance casting director for vertical shorts.

Her short film, "The Fears of Young Caroline," was a Coup de Coeur at Cannes and won numerous awards, including Best Drama at the Queensland New Filmmakers Awards, Best Foreign Film at Indie Fest USA and Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival, and 3rd Place at the Sunset International Film Festival. Her one-minute short film "Waterlilies," based on the poem “The Babies of Walloon” by Henry Lawson, earned her the Cultural Achiever of the Year award from the Ipswich City Council.

Talisha's first screenplay, "There's Something About Finch," was a Finalist at the AFIN Film Festival and ranked in the Top 10 at the Australian International Screenwriting Awards. Her AFI thesis film, "Some Kind of Paradise," co-written with the director, premiered In Competition at Tribeca, won the Jury Award at the OUTshine Film Festival, was selected for the CAA Moebius Film Festival and is currently nominated for the IRIS Prize — the world’s largest LGBTQ+ short film prize. Her feature screenplays "Golden Nugget" is currently optioned/in development, "Utopia Dystopia" is on the Top Lists on the Black List site, a quarterfinalist in Page International Screenwriting Awards and Screencraft, and her pilot “The Principal” is a Finalist (top 5) in Script Pipeline. 

Talisha Elger is an American Australian Association Arts Fund Scholar, an American Film Institute Ann Garcelon Endowed Scholarship recipient, and was selected for the Screen Australia Talent Lab. With an 18-year background in dance, Talisha’s creative voice is distinct and compelling, gravitating towards dark, bold, strange, and unsettling projects with a subtle comedic undertone. She continually explores new avenues, blending the classic with the unconventional to create tonally unique works.