Debra Oswald

Writer

Debra Oswald is an award-winning Australian playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Her latest novel, One Hundred Years of Betty, was published by Allen & Unwin in March 2025. She is also the author of Useful (2015, Penguin Random House), The Whole Bright Year (2018, Penguin Random House), and The Family Doctor (2021, Allen & Unwin), which she is currently adapting for t elevision with Werner Films.

Debra is best known as the creator and head writer of the hit TV series Offspring (Southern Star/Channel 10), which became a cultural phenomenon over its first five seasons.  Her work on the show earned her the AACTA Award for Best Television Screenplay and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Telemovie Script in 2011.

Her extensive television credits include The Secret Life of Us, Police Rescue, Palace of Dreams, Sweet and Sour, Bananas in Pyjamas, and more. Her episodes for Police Rescue received national and international recognition, including AWGIE and AFI nominations and a Silver Medal at the New York Festival. She has also developed a number of TV drama projects with Easy Tiger Productions, Rough Diamond, Roadshow, and Keshet UK.

Her stage plays have been performed around the world and published by Currency Press. Gary’s House, Sweet Road, and The Peach Season were shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, and her play Stories in the Dark won the award in 2008.

She has also written three other plays for young audiences, Dags, Skate and House on Fire as well as several children’s novels, including The Redback Leftovers, Frank and the Emergency Joke, Getting Air, and Nathan and the Ice Rockets.

In 2021, Debra performed her one-woman show Is There Something Wrong With That Lady? at Griffin Theatre, with a follow-up season at Ensemble Theatre in 2023. Her play Mr Bailey’s Minder was also revived at the Ensemble in 2023.

For enquiries regarding Debra Oswald please contact us via email or on (02) 9319 7199.