Biography
An award winning actor on stage, film and television for over 25 years with credits in productions such as Neighbours (1985), Blue Heelers (1994), Stingers (1998), The Secret Life of Us (2001), A Country Practice (1994), Killing Time (2010), Satisfaction (2007), Fat Tony & Co (2014) and Four Jacks (2001), Alan is also an accomplished painter. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Art in 2006, majoring in painting at the Victorian College of the Arts. Following art school, Alan found himself gravitating toward the medium of filmmaking, relishing the opportunity to amalgamate both his performance and fine art skills. This enabled him the ability to craft a distinct and unique voice as an emerging filmmaker. In 2013, Alan formed his production company White Cube Picture Lab, with a mission to create intimate, sustainable, avant-garde story telling for the screen. His short films include The Winking Boy (2011), Goldfield (2013), The Correspondent (2015), A Way Back (2016), Catnap (2018), Wild Will (2019) and Family Circle (2021). In 2024 Alan completed his debut feature film Vincent (2024).
Tending to work outside conventional filmmaking frameworks, Alan often performs multiple roles on his projects, including director, cinematographer, sound designer, editor and actor. He even designs the artwork for his film's posters. A big believer in restriction breeding creativity and sustainability being absolutely essential for an independent filmmaker to learn and move their craft forwards, Alan has fast gained a widespread reputation for creating unique, innovative, award winning works from considerably modest resources, such as his experimental horror short film Wild Will (2019), which was shot completely solo in his kitchen for less than fifty Aus dollars and went on to achieve worldwide critical success. Alan's films are often distinguished by their stark bold visuals coupled with enhanced audio textures and punctuated silences. His narratives regularly explore what lies beneath the everyday facades and delve deep into the human psyche.
Through his films, Alan has formed partnerships with leading international distribution and streaming companies such as Prime, Apple TV, SBS, VidiVerse, IndieFlix and GooglePlay. His films have played on national television (SBS) and have screened and been awarded at some of the worlds most prestigious film festivals. In 2020 his short film works were acquired by the Australian National Film and Sound Archive for their permanent collection. Alan has worked as a guest lecturer in film studies at Swinburne Film School and Footscray City Film College and has served as a jury member for several film festivals, including the i'l Varco International Film Festival in Rome, where he has also served on the board of directors. In 2022 Alan was inducted into the Rome Prisma Awards Hall of Fame for his contributions to independent film.
In a pleasing validation for his unorthodox approach, the least resourced of all Alan's short films Wild Will (2019) has also been his most celebrated to date. The film world premiered in competition at the 2019 Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival in the Lab competition and went on to screen in competition at over 80 festivals worldwide including Tampere, Dresden, Encounters, Brisbane, Cannes Antipodes, Festival Tous Courts, St Kilda and Tallinn Black Nights as one of just seven shorts selected worldwide for their 'Rebels With A Cause' competition. In 2023 'Wild Will' was invited to open the premiere of the Larry Fessenden horror feature Blackout (2023) at the iconic Slash Film Festival in Austria. Awards for 'Wild Will' included the jury award for 'Innovation in Form' at the Brisbane International Film Festival, Best Experimental Film at the Castrovillari and Sorsi Corti Film Festivals, Best Screenwriter and Best Lead Actor at the Pollino International Film Festival and Best Short Film at Short Days edition IV in Rome curated under the theme 'The Persistence of Vision'. Rolling Stone and Washington Post journalist Fillippo Venturi hailed 'Wild Will' as "un piccolo capolavoro" (a small masterpiece) and prominent French cinema publication Ecran Noir named 'Wild Will' a highlight of the 2019 Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival, before going on to list the film as on of their Top 10 foreign short films for the year. In early 2022, following it's highly successful festival run 'Wild Will' along with Alan's 2015 short film The Correspondent (2015)) were personally curated by legendary filmmaker Alex Proyas (The Crow (1994), Dark City (1998) & I, Robot (2004)) to be a part of a select collection of short films for the inaugural launch of his VidiVerse online streaming platform.
As a screenwriter Alan has completed numerous short scripts, television treatments and five feature screenplays to date. Highlights to date include a 2017 Academy Nicholl Quarter Finalist placement for his feature script 'The Milk Bar' and an 2018 Australian Writers Guild 'Monte Miller' nomination and Blue Cat Screenplay competition Semi-Finalist placement for his screenplay 'Leo's Dream'. In 2018 Alan was inducted into the prestigious Australian Writers Guild Pathways program, a platform designed to showcase the very best in Australian screenwriting talent.
In 2024, with assistance from Creative Victoria & Harbor Picture Company, Alan completed his first feature film, the wild dark comedy Vincent (2024). Drawing on many of the Dogme 95 principles, 'Vincent was shot over seven gruelling days and nights with a small, yet highly dedicated team in regional and metro Victoria. 'Vincent' had its world premiere as the only Australian Film in competition at the 33rd Cinequest International Film Festival (USA) and played at festivals all over the world. Awards for the film and Alan's titular performance included 'Best Fantasy Film' at Film Haus Berlin, 'Best Lead Actor' nomination at the Septimius Awards in Amsterdam, 'Best Feature Film Performance' at the Satiago Horror Film Festival, 'Best Lead Actor' at the Midwest Weirdfest Film Festival (USA) and 'Best Film' & 'Best Lead Actor' at the 25th Melbourne Underground Film Festival.
In addition to the film's festival success, 'Vincent' received widespread critical acclaim both locally and overseas; ScreenHub Australia gave the film four and a half stars, celebrating the work as "A truly unique work of art...Vincent has all the makings of an Australian cult classic. Intelligent, quirky, and darkly humorous, a finely observed and beautifully performed film". No Film School saluted the film as "Masterful...an exquisite dark comedy, unlike anything you have ever seen", Film Threat praised the film as "Fantastical...Intense...a journey the audience will not soon forget", 2025 in Twenty Five hailed Vincent as "A surreal, offbeat Aussie gem that defies convention and lingers in your mind well beyond the final frame". Renowned European film critic Hugues Dayez was so struck with King's similarity to the recently departed drummer from Blondie, Clem Burke he thought he was being haunted by the late musician's ghost and felt compelled to watch the film. Dayez proceeded to highlight 'Vincent' on his renowned podcast '5 Hueres' as a work which left him feeling "very taken aback" praising the film's unique qualities of being both "poetic and unclassifiable" at the same time.
Following its critically acclaimed festival run, 'Vincent' was picked up for representation by The Movie Agency and signed for worldwide distribution with North American distributor Indie Rights with streaming on multiple platforms worldwide including; Prime, Apple TV, Fawesome, Tubi and GooglePlay.
20 wins and 26 nominations
