From screen to strategy: How the Masters of Screen Business transformed Diana Glenn’s career

After three decades as a celebrated actor, Diana Glenn found herself at a crossroads. “I got to a point in my career where I wanted to give myself a little bit more say in my career instead of being constantly at the mercy of other people’s decisions and choices and tastes,” she says. “I wanted to use my brain, I wanted to do things that I hadn’t had the capacity to do as an actress or a voiceover artist.” 

That desire led her to AFTRS and the Master of Screen: Business (MASB) – a decision she describes as “life changing”. 

Diana, a 2024 graduate who did the course part-time and online, said the experience opened doors she never imagined. “It changed my life. It changed my views on the industry, but it also reignited my passion for the industry,” the AACTA Award-winning actor said.  

Initially daunted by the business focus –“I’d never had to look at financial projections or business models” – she soon discovered a new understanding of the workings of the screen industry, along with new abilities, and exciting new opportunities.  

“The greatest thing that the course gave me was an enormous amount of confidence,” Diana said.

“By the end of each subject, I was really quite proud of myself that I was putting together Excel spreadsheets and business models and ratios and all the things that I’d never dreamed, and that made my mother, who’s an accountant, very happy. 

“It’s essentially a business degree that is focused on the screen industry.” 

The MASB program’s emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship proved pivotal. “A really strong aspect of the course is the concentration on technology and innovation… and that becomes a really key part of the way that you start thinking,” Diana explains.  

Those insights now shape her work as co-founder of Jacaranda Productions, where “innovation and technology are very much part of that thinking”.  

Since completing the course, Diana has taken bold steps. She landed a senior role at Screenworks – “the first grown-up job I’d done that I didn’t audition for” – and launched Jacaranda Productions with fellow MASB alum Sarah Goodes. Their latest project, Coltrane, is an immersive five-part VR noir thriller co-produced with award-winning XR studio New Canvas.  

The series combines live-action performance with photorealistic, real-time interactivity powered by game engine technology. Viewers navigate surveillance operations and morally complex interrogations while experiencing how personal trauma, bias and memory distort perception of truth. 

“For me, the reasons why we make art are to make people feel, to bring connection, and to encourage the audience to witness and experience different perspectives. With this new technology, we have the potential to do that on an even deeper level,” Diana told Variety. 

Diana’s connection with Sarah in the MASB – also an online student – was one of the many benefits of the course.  

“The best thing about the course is the people – the people that you meet, the people that teach you, the people that are invited to come and speak to you and do the course,” Diana said. 

“The MASB does attract so many different people, not just from the industry, from other industries as well, so I think you get a really amazing mix of people that you can learn from and work with.” 

For Diana, the MASB was more than a qualification – it was a catalyst. “If you want your own business within the industry, it’s a perfect course,” she says.

Her advice to anyone considering it? “I think that it’s worth exploring and just jumping in because more often than not, there will be enough subject material there that you will get something out of and then you can kind of tailor as you go along to make it fit your needs.”