Key details
Dr Deborah T Klika
Academic Portfolio Lead - Film & Television Production
Trained at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in studio and film production, Deborah has enjoyed a varied career in different capacities in the Australian Film and TV Industry – from production to research to management, policy development, community cultural development and board governance. Her academic interests span production, theory and screenwriting. Deborah’s book Situation Comedy, Character and Psychoanalysis: On the Couch with Lucy, Basil and Kimmie was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2018/9 and she has recently published a chapter on the ‘Defining the Beats in the TV Sitcom.’
Responsibilities within the university
- Academic Portfolio Lead - Film & Television Production
- Module leader Y2 and Y3 modules
- Lead on increasing TV offering within the current BA (Hons) Film and Television
- Lead on Virtual Production delivery
- Lead on developing a new degree that includes Virtual Production
Awards
- 2022 – part of team short listed for Course of the Year and mentioned in winning Department of the Year, Middlesex University Student Union (MDXSU) Student-led teaching awards
- 2019 – nominated Academic Staff Member of the Year – Arts and Creative Industries; Most Inspiring Teacher, MDXSU awards
- 2018 – Finalist, Outstanding Student Development, MDXSU awards
- 2017 – At the Bar, a half-hour script awarded third place in the Cannes Screenplay Contest for best TV Comedy Pilot
Recognition
- External Examiner MA Film Lincoln University
- Member Writers Guild of Great Britain
Recent publications
- Klika, D. (2021) ‘Defining the Beats in the TV Sitcom.’ In Script Development. Critical Approaches. Creative Practices. International Perspectives. Ed. Craig Batty and Staci Taylor, London: Palgrave
- Klika, D. (2019) ‘Caught in the Second Act: The Relationship between Film Comedy and the TV Sitcom’. Comunicazioni Sociali. Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies, N3, pp. 372-388
- Klika, D.T. (2018, 2019, 2022) Situation Comedy, Character and Psychoanalysis: On the Couch with Lucy, Basil and Kimmie, New York: Bloomsbury Academic
Presentations
- 2021: Screenwriting Research Network online conference (Oxford). ‘Comic characters with personality disorders: has their time arrived?’
- 2019: Masterclass on Comedy and Character at NFTS, UK
- 2018: Screenwriting Research Network Conference, Milan, Italy, paper ‘The Ghost in the Second Act: when a film becomes a comedy series’
- 2017: North London Literary Festival, Middlesex University. Workshop on (re)Reading the sitcom
- 2016: Screenwriting Research Network Conference, Leeds, UK: ‘The Inescapable Narrative Structure of the Sitcom.’
- 2015: June: International Society for Humor Studies, Conference, San Francisco: workshop on (re)Writing the TV Sitcom