5 questions with Michelle Cheng, Content Industry Diversity Manager

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  1. Tell us about what you do at SBS

    I’m the Content Industry Diversity Manager at SBS within our TV and Online Division. I work with our team and our partners in the wider production sector to improve diversity on and off screen, by building career pathways for TV creatives from under-represented communities, managing our diversity and inclusion initiatives which are designed to see more diverse stories on screen, meeting with international broadcasters and organisations to better understand best practice in screen diversity, working on diversity and inclusion content strategy and measuring/tracking diversity on our productions.

  2. What is the favourite part of your role?

    The best part of my role, is the conversations with a diverse range of people from across the media industry. By hearing everyone’s stories, I’m gradually putting together pieces of the puzzle, to see how we’re progressing with making our sector more inclusive.

  3. What makes you proud to work at SBS?

    I love being part of SBS, because of the mission to service Australia’s multicultural and First Nations communities and improve cross-cultural communication.

  4. What are you currently working on?

    Currently, I’m rolling out The Everyone Project as the incoming Co-Chair of the Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network. The Everyone Project is an industry wide initiative to measure diversity of cast and crew in Aussie productions. We’re rolling this out on SBS commissioned programs currently. It will be great to learn more about how we’re tracking, so we have a benchmark for what comes next. I’m also meeting with diverse creatives across the TV industry to learn more about their experiences.

  5. If you had one thing to say to our audience…

    Definitely check out See What You Made Me Do, available on SBS On Demand – it’s a powerful show which shares the stories of the many Australian women facing domestic abuse, and calls for change.

" By hearing everyone’s stories, I’m gradually putting together pieces of the puzzle, to see how we’re progressing with making our sector more inclusive."