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, studying Screenwriting, The Art and Technique of Filmmaking, Television Studies, and Entertainment Economics. At UCLA, she earned a spot on the Dean’s Honors List and a screenwriting mentorship with Linda Voorhees, the founder of ProPath Screenwriting.

Talisha's education also includes an Advanced Diploma of Screen (Film & Television) and a Certification in Photo-imaging from Southbank Institute of Technology. With over 15 years in the Film and TV industry, she has worked in costume, production design, assistant art direction, script supervising, stills photographer, and as a director’s assistant on feature narratives, documentaries, and shorts. She also provided script coverage for The Radmin Company and worked in casting as an assistant for Victoria Hoffman and as a casting director for vertical shorts. Talisha is currently in post-production on her new short film, Syringe, a psychological body horror she wrote and directed that explores medical gaslighting and the systemic neglect of women’s healthcare.

Her short film, "The Fears of Young Caroline," was a Coup de Coeur at Cannes and won awards such as Best Drama at the Queensland New Filmmakers Awards, Best Foreign Film at Indie Fest USA, 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 AFI thesis film, "Some Kind of Paradise," co-written with the director, premiered In Competition at Tribeca, screened at BFI, and won the Jury Award at the OUTshine Festival. Her feature screenplay Utopia Dystopia was a Second Rounder in the Austin Film Festival, a Semi-finalist in the Screencraft Drama Competition, a Quarterfinalist in the Screencraft Feature Competition, a Quarterfinalist in the Page International Screenplay Awards, and was featured on the Black List Top Lists. Her pilot The Principal was a Finalist (Top 5) in Script Pipeline and a Quarterfinalist in the Screencraft Pilot Competition. Her feature screenplay Golden Nugget is currently optioned and in development.

Talisha Elger is an AAA Arts Fund Scholar, an AFI 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.