Quinell has a background in publishing and freelancejournalism, including working for Screen International and Rolling Stone.
In the 1960s he was a member of the WEA Film Study Group, where he met writers Michael Thornhill[1] and Frank Moorhouse.
From 1966 to 1968 Quinnell and Michael Thornhill published SCJ: The Sydney Cinema Journal.
[citation needed] Quinnell wrote the screenplays for Cathy's Child (1979) (with Dick Wordley) adapted from Wordley's novel Hoodwink (1981); and The City's Edge (1983), originally titled The Running Man.
[citation needed] In 1981 Quinnell was nominated for the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted, for Hoodwink.