Laura Ritchie has picked up another Emmy for Love on the Spectrum

In September the American version, Love on the Spectrum US, won three Primetime Emmy awards.

One of those awards was for outstanding casting of an unstructured reality program.

As the casting director, Ms Ritchie shared the Emmy with two US-based casting agents.

Now the second series of the Australian program has won the International Emmy Award for best Non-scripted Entertainment at the awards ceremony in New York on Monday, November 21.

The other finalists in that category came from Argentina, Germany and Saudi Arabia.

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"They have a huge number of applicants and then there is a very rigorous selection process," Ms Ritchie said.

The International Emmy Awards are for outstanding TV programs that are produced outside of the US, while the Primetime Emmy Awards are only open to the highest-rating TV shows on all the world's streaming platforms.

Love on the Spectrum was made by Sydney-based Northern Pictures and Ms Ritchie was the program's producer.

She wrote and cast the program, as well as paired the young people on the autism spectrum to explore dating and relationships.

"You are really taking a lot of time to find their interests, what they are comfortable with and the kind of person they are looking for," Ms Ritchie said.

When Ms Ritchie told people she was leaving Sydney for the Far South Coast she invariably got negative feedback and felt very discouraged.

"People said you are throwing away your career.

"When I first moved people thought it was the end for me," Ms Ritchie said.

However, during the height of COVID, she was casting for the US version at the same time she was producing the second series of the Australian program.

Every day for three months Ms Ritchie woke at 3.30am to interview candidates on the US east coast for two hours. After breakfast she had calls with west coast applicants.

"If COVID taught us anything it is that everyone doesn't have to live in one very competitive place like Sydney to create good TV programs," she said.

The third-generation documentary maker is now flat out casting for a new factual entertainment program for Paramount+ and again does most of her work remotely.

"I have a fantastic boss and she is really supportive of me being able to work from home."

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