Renowned Film and TV editor awarded honorary degree

A trip with his father to the Cinema in downtown Melbourne to see the George Lucas’ epic movie ‘Star Wars’ in 1977 was the catalyst for the then five-year-old Paul Machliss to want to be a part of the Film and Television industry.

A huge fan of British television, Paul’s journey to Hollywood began in 1990 as a ‘cable basher’ and runner at Channel 7 Television in Melbourne. Paul had a voracious appetite for watching everything the Australian networks would purchase from England, and he would be spellbound by the British sci-fi, drama and particularly comedy. This started a long-time desire for Paul to want to be a part of the British Television scene.

By 1995, Paul had become one of the youngest videotape editors in the industry, working mainly in advertising and promotions. By September 1995, a chance offering afforded Paul the opportunity to realise his dream of leaving Australia and moving to the UK. Effectively ‘starting from scratch’ Paul eventually found employment in a variety of editing roles in several postproduction facilities in Soho.

In 1999, he first encountered new clients Edgar Wright and producer Nira Park when he was asked to put the finishing touches to Wright’s first major TV series for Channel 4 - ‘Spaced’. This proved to be a major shift for Paul’s career, and he went on to edit the second series of ‘Spaced’ as a fully-fledged Picture Editor and for the next 15 years worked on many memorable British comedies such as ‘Black Books’, ‘The IT Crowd’, ‘Peep Show’, ‘Grass’, ‘Look Around You’, ‘Friday Night Dinner’ and ‘Fleabag’.

Most recently, Paul worked with Andy Muschietti on the star-studded DC Comics/Warner Bros. epic ‘The Flash’, which was released June 2023.