Tristan Bancks

Tristan Bancks (21 December 1974) is an Australian children's and teen author, with a background in filmmaking and acting. As an actor he is known for his role as Tug O'Neale on Home and Away between 1992-1994.

As a teenager, Bancks trained at Sydney's Q Theatre before landing a series regular role on Home and Away. After leaving Home and Away, he spent four years in London writing, researching and presenting television for ITV, BBC, Channel Four and Cable. He presented shows like Don't Try This at Home, Sussed, and The Travel Channel

In 1999, Tristan left London to return to Australia to appear in Ivan Sen's short drama Dust as well as Beneath Clouds 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's The Long Wet and John Campbell's The New Boots. Another film, Soar, screened at the London Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand and Melbourne International Film Festival.

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 '09 releases are the Nitboy books - Bug Out and Lift Off. His first Young Adult novel, It's Yr Life, co-written by former Home and Away actress and author Tempany Deckert, 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, Tristan Bancks won at the Flickerfest International Short Film Festival for his direction in Soar

Tristan's sister, Kerryn Johnston, was previously a newsreader for WIN Television in Wollongong. He is married with two sons.

• Remote Area Nurse (2006).... as Grub
• Beneath Clouds (2006).... as Grub
• Dust (2002).... as Dean
• Home and Away (1992–1994).... as Tug O'Neale.

• 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 Tempany Deckert) (2009)
• My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up (2011)
• Galactic Adventures: First Kids in Space (2011)
• Two Wolves (2014)
• On The Run (2015)