Tristan Bancks (21 December 1974) is an Australian children's and teen's author, with a background in filmmaking and acting. As an actor, he is known for his role as

Tug O'Neale Peter "Tug" O'Neale is a fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera ''Home and Away'', played by Tristan Bancks. The actor was selected from 200 people who had auditioned for the role and was contracted to appear for one mo ...

on ''

Home and Away ''Home and Away'' (often abbreviated as ''H&A'') is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip ...

'' between 1992-1994.

Biography

Bancks trained at Sydney's

Q Theatre The Q Theatre was a British theatre located near Kew Bridge in Brentford, west London, which operated between 1924 and 1958. It was built on the site of the former Kew Bridge Studios. The theatre, seating 490 in 25 rows with a central aisle, wa ...

before landing a series regular role on ''Home and Away'' with his role being

. After leaving ''Home and Away'', he spent four years in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

writing, researching and presenting television for

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, Channel Four and Cable. He presented shows like '' Don't Try This at Home'', ''Sussed'', and

The Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

. In 1999, Tristan left London to return to Australia to appear in

Ivan Sen Ivan Sen (born 1972) is an Indigenous Australian filmmaker. He is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer, as well as an editor, composer and sound designer. He is co-founder and director of Bunya Productions. Early life Ivan Sen was born ...

's short drama ''Dust'' as well as ''

Beneath Clouds ''Beneath Clouds'' is a 2002 film by Indigenous Australian director Ivan Sen. It is the feature film debut by the two lead actors. Damian Pitt was approached by Sen on the streets of Moree, New South Wales, and had never acted before. Dannielle ...

'' and '' Remote Area Nurse''. Since his return, Tristan has made a number of short films as writer and director, including adaptations of two award-winning stories –

Sarah Armstrong Sarah Armstrong (born 1968) is an Australian journalist and novelist. Over an eight-year period she worked for the ABC on radio programs including AM, PM and The World Today where she won a Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are pres ...

's ''The Long Wet'' and John Campbell's ''The New Boots''. Another film, ''Soar'', screened at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population ...

and

Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venice Film Fest ...

. His latest short film, ''Every Day at School'', was funded by SBS and Film Australia for their Change the World in Five Minutes campaign. It aims to inspire primary school classes all over the country to spend the first five minutes of every day changing the world in some small way. For the past few years, he has been writing full-time. This include his 2009 release of ''Mac Slater Coolhunter 2: I Heart NY'', which is the follow-up to ''The Rules of Cool''. His other 2009 releases are the ''Nitboy'' books - Bug Out and Lift Off. His first Young Adult novel, ''It's Yr Life'', co-written by former

actress and author

Tempany Deckert Tempany Deckert (born 2 March 1978) is an Australian actress and author, who now resides in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is perhaps best known for her role as Selina Roberts on popular soap opera ''Home and Away'' from 1994 to 1997, and br ...

, was released in June 2009. Tristan has also written eight short novels in Macmillan's ''Kids Inc.'' series, about kids setting up their own businesses and ventures. In 2004, Bancks won at the ''Flickerfest International Short Film Festival'' for his direction in ''Soar.'' Bancks was shortlisted for the Children's Book Award at the

Queensland Literary Awards The Queensland Literary Awards is an awards program established in 2012 by the Queensland literary community, funded by sponsors and administered by the State Library of Queensland. Like the former Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the QLAs ...

for ''Detention.'' He was shortlisted for the Young Adult Indie Award in 2023 for ''Cop & Robber''.

Personal

Bancks's great-great uncle,

Jimmy Bancks James Charles Bancks (10 May 1889 – 1 July 1952) was an Australian cartoonist best known for his comic strip ''Ginger Meggs''. Biography James Charles Bancks was born in Enmore, New South Wales, Australia on 10 May 1889, the son of an Irish ...

, was the original creator of the ''

Ginger Meggs ''Ginger Meggs'', Australia's most popular and longest-running comic strip, was created in the early 1920s by Jimmy Bancks. The strip follows the escapades of a red-haired prepubescent mischief-maker who lives in an inner suburban working-class ...

'' comic in 1921; Tristan is the co-author of the 100th anniversary book edition of ''Ginger Meggs''. Bancks's sister, Kerryn Johnston, was previously a newsreader for

WIN Television WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television station covering the Wollongong region. The WIN Netwo ...

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

. He is married with two sons.

Television

* ''Remote Area Nurse'' (2006) as Grub * ''

'' (2006) as Grub * ''Dust'' (2002) as Dean * ''

'' (1992–1994) as Tug O'Neale

Books

* ''Mac Slater Coolhunter 1: The Rules of Cool'' (2008) * ''Mac Slater Coolhunter 2: I Heart NY'' (2009) * ''Nitboy: Lift Off'' (2009) * ''Nitboy: Bug Out'' (2009) * ''It's Yr Life'' (with

) (2009) * ''My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up'' (2011) * ''Galactic Adventures: First Kids in Space'' (2011) * ''Two Wolves'' (2014) * ''On The Run'' (2015) * ''The Fall'' (2017) * ''Detention'' (2019) * ''Ginger Meggs'' (with

Jason Chatfield Jason Chatfield (born 1984) is an Australian cartoonist and stand-up comedian, based in New York City. At 23 he became Australia's most widely syndicated cartoonist, appearing daily in over 120 newspapers in 34 countries. His art spans the disc ...

) (2021) * ''Cop & Robber'' (2022)

External links

Tristan Bancks' Webpage
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bancks, Tristan 1974 births Australian children's writers Australian male actors Living people