Sophie Byrne is a multi-award-winning film and TV producer with over 30 years of industry experience both in London and Melbourne and is best known for her work on the initial pilot and original music videos for the hugely successful concept band GORILLAZ, the expansion of the cult brand SCARYGIRL and for producing the Academy Award®-winning animated short THE LOST THING.

Her production company, Highly Spirited is the offspring of Oscar winning production company Passion Pictures Australia. Based in Melbourne, Highly Spirited has many high end independent film, TV and new media projects in various stages of development, production and completion including: an animated feature film based on Nathan Jurevicius’s acclaimed SCARYGIRL concept (currently in cinemas worldwide) with co-producers Like A Photon Creative, a high end TV series TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA (in production) with co-production partners Flying Bark Productions based on Shaun Tan’s award winning children’s’ book of the same name, and a music driven kids TV series inspired by AFL star Eddie Bett’s best-selling picture books, EDDIES Lil HOMIES (premiering on NITV, Netflix and SBS on Demand on 16th February 2024). Highly Spirited was also a Supervising Producer on Academy Award winning Ari Folman’s (Waltz with Bashir) recent 2D animated feature film, WHERE IS ANNE FRANK and represents Shaun Tan across all media.