John Misto has been writing for Australian stage and television for over three decades. He specialises in discovering, researching and telling true stories of forgotten heroes. Misto’s play, The Shoe-Horn Sonata, drew national attention to the plight of the Australian Army nurses and civilian women who were imprisoned by the Japanese in Singapore, and then written out of history when they returned to Australia. The Shoe-Horn Sonata has enjoyed enormous success. It has been performed hundreds of times in Australia as well as in London, Finland and Czechoslovakia. It has been on the NSW HSC English syllabus for the past twenty years, has been reprinted sixteen times and sold 60,000 copies. Misto won both the NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the Australia Remembers National Play Competition for his play. He also raised $20,000 for a national memorial to these women. “The Shoe-Horn Sonata” has been called “A modern Australian classic” (Sydney Morning Herald) and “Truly a masterpiece” (Daily Telegraph) Misto also wrote the telemovie, Sisters of War, the true story of a friendship between an atheistic nurse and a Catholic nun who were captured and held in horrifying circumstances by the Japanese in Rabaul. Misto’s script won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award. Misto’s play, Harp on the Willow completed a sell-out season at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney with Marina Prior in the starring role. Harp was the true story of the famous Irish singer and harpist, Mary O’Hara and her sudden, inexplicable disappearance at the height of her fame. Harp won the Rodney Seaborn Award for Best New Play. The play was so well received that Mary O’Hara emerged from years of self-imposed exile and returned to public life and successful lecturing tours. John Misto’s other Screen credits include Heroes’ Mountain about the perilous rescue of Stuart Diver who was trapped after an horrific landslide in Thredbo. Heroes’ Mountain won a Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Television Festival. Misto also researched and wrote the highly successful min-series The Day of the Roses about the Granville Train Disaster, Australia’s greatest peace time disaster and the government cover-up which followed. Misto’s script was described as “a piece of television magic of which we should all be proud” (Herald Sun). Misto’s play, Dark Voyager, about Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe, had a very successful season at Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre in July- August, 2014. Misto’s latest play, Madame Rubinstein, starred Miriam Margolyes and Frances Barber, and had a sell-out season at London’s Park Theatre in 2017. The play, a comedy about the cosmetics industry, was published in London by Methuen Drama and in Australia by Origin Theatrical. The play had a very successful season at Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre and at the Lawler Theatre in Melbourne under the title of Lip Service. Madame Rubinstein has also been performed in Ekaterinburg. It is the first play by an Australian playwright to be performed in Russia, and in a Russian translation. It has also been performed in Minsk and Prague. In 2021 it is scheduled have seasons in Israel, Bulgaria, and Prague once again. John Misto is currently developing two television series, Traitor’s Gate and The Make-Up Wars with producer Tony Cavanaugh and Beyond Productions. Misto has also written the multi award -winning ABC series, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh and The Cut, about a conniving sports agent. Some of the stories Misto unearthed in his research were bitterly denied by the sports world but later turned out to be true. John Misto is also the author of the noir thriller, The Devil’s Companions about an order of nuns accused of child abuse, published by Hachette, and Peter &; Pompey, a children’s book about a group of exiled Romans who land in Australia in 45BC, published by McPhee-Gribble, Penguin . He adapted it from his television script which won a Penguin Award for Best TV Telemovie. Before becoming a writer, Misto graduated in Arts and Law from the University of New South Wales.