Debra Oswald

Writer

Debra Oswald is screenwriter, playwright and fiction author.

She was the co-creator and head writer for series 1-5 of the award-winning Channel Ten series Offspring. Debra won the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for the Offspring telemovie script and won the 2014 AACTA for Best Television Screenplay for an episode in series 4. Her other television credits include award-winning episodes of Police Rescue, Palace of Dreams, The Secret Life of Us, Sweet and Sour and Bananas in Pyjamas.

Debra’s stage plays have been produced around Australia. Gary’s House, Sweet Road and The Peach Season were all shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award, and her play Dags has had many Australian productions. Gary’s House has been performed in translation in Denmark and Japan. Mr Bailey’s Minder broke the Griffin Theatre’s box office record in 2004, toured nationally in 2006, and was produced in Philadelphia in 2008. Debra has written three plays for Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP)—Skate, Stories in the Dark (NSW Premier’s Literary Play Award in 2008) and House on Fire (2010). Debra’s plays are published by Currency Press. Debra’s one-woman show Is There Something Wrong With That Lady? enjoyed a sell-out debut at Griffin Theatre Company in 2021 and will be revived at the Ensemble Theatre in 2023, alongside Mr Bailey’s Minder.

She is the author of three ‘Aussie Bite’ books for kids, including Nathan and the Ice Rockets, and six novels for teenage readers including The Redback Leftovers and Blue Noise. Debra has published three novels for adults, Useful, which was published by Penguin in 2015 and The Whole Bright Year which was published by Penguin in 2018. Debra’s third novel The Family Doctor was published by Allen and Unwin and is being developed by Debra as a television series with Werner Films.

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