About Clem

Don't you know me, boy?

Dr. Clem Bastow is a screenwriter, cultural critic, and award-winning critical Autism studies researcher based in Naarm/Melbourne. Clem's debut non-fiction book, Late Bloomer: how an Autism diagnosis changed my life (Hardie Grant), was published in 2021, and they co-edited Someone Like Me: an anthology of non-fiction by Autistic writers (UQP), which was published earlier in 2025. Once upon a time, Clem's work could be found in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Junkee, The Vine, Hopes+Fears... you get the picture. These days, Clem contributes occasionally to The Guardian.

Their PhD, I Can't Describe What I'm Feeling: Reframing Autism and Hollywood Action Towards an Autistic Screenwriting Practice, was awarded the RMIT DSC Research Excellence Prize in 2023. They have contributed essays to edited collections such as Investigating Stranger Things (Palgrave) and ReFocus: The Films of Elaine May (Edinburgh University Press). Clem also works as a screenwriter and neurodiversity consultant for film and television, most recently for the AACTA-nominated series Spooky Files (ABC/BBC). By day, they are Senior Tutor in screenwriting at the University of Melbourne.