Thomas Duncan-Watt is a multi-award-winning screenwriter, showrunner, playwright, and author who, over the past decade, has established himself as one of Australia’s most decorated screenwriters in the comedy and family space.

Starting his career as a comedy writer for shows like Good News Week (Channel 10) and NewsJack (BBC Radio 4) he soon found similar work in the animation space, becoming a three-time AWGIE Award winner (of six nominations) for his work on hit TV series like The Deep (2017), Beat Bugs (2019), and Space Nova (2020). In 2021, he made Australian screen history by becoming the first-ever animation writer to win the John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science Fiction Writing, taking home the $10,000 prize for his Space Nova episode, ‘Ghost Station’. That same series, for which Thomas wrote the pilot before becoming Head Writer, has just aired its second season, becoming a multi-award-winning flagship title for both Nine Network and ABC ME in Australia, as well as international partners like Super RTL and PBS. It has since gone on to win further AWGIE awards and a record second John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science Fiction, the first double win for a single series ever.

Aside from Space Nova, Thomas’s animation writing credits span a wide range of high-profile series including Dennis & Gnasher (BBC), Alien TV (Netflix), Pirate Express, Winston Steinburger & Sir Dudley Ding-Dong (CBC), Emmy Award winner Beat Bugs (Netflix/Thunderbird), and The Deep (ABC/CBC). One of his scripts for Dennis & Gnasher even earned the series its first-ever BAFTA nomination, while The Deep would also go on to be BAFTA-nominated during his time on the writing team.

In recent years, Thomas has started to make a name for himself as a writer in the drama space. Notably, in 2023, his original drama pilot, The Nightmover, became a Final Draft Big Break finalist, earned a spot on Coverfly’s coveted “Red List,” and placed among the Screencraft Top 100 Pilots of the year internationally. On the strength of this and other original projects, Thomas was invited to work on Australia’s longest-running primetime drama series, Home & Away where he ended up spending a year on their freelance writing team and wrote 8 episodes of the series. During this time Thomas earned his Green Card, signing to legendary agent Annette Van Duren in the United States and Sharne McGee at Liberty Artist Management in Australia.

In 2024, shortly after wrapping his work on Space Nova Season 2, Thomas was selected as one of Australia’s six most promising mid-career writer/showrunners to get a place in The Creators, a flagship professional development initiative from Screen Australia and the Australian Writers’ Guild in partnership with Film Independent in Los Angeles. The program, led by WGA showrunner trainer Jeff Melvoin (Killing Eve, Northern Exposure), is designed to elevate the next generation of Australian showrunners for global streaming and broadcast markets. It was during a ‘Creators’ funded trip to the UK that Thomas connected with Charlie Garber, newly appointed head of Development at Thumper Pictures, where he has just optioned The Nightmover.

In addition to his screen career, Thomas has a significant presence in theatre and live performance, creating the cult stage parody Thank You For Being a Friend, a Muppet-style musical tribute to The Golden Girls, which has toured Australia and Canada to critical acclaim winning Broadway World’s Best Independent Theatre Production. This show later evolved into That Golden Girls Show: A Puppet Parody, which debuted Off-Broadway in New York in 2016 and has since toured extensively across North America, with annual seasonal runs in major US cities. The stage show continues to be licensed globally and has become a beloved part of live comedy programming.

In 2024, Thomas made his debut as an author with the middle-grade action-adventure novel Tomb of the Zombie King, the first in the Seekers of the Lost Cavern series, published by Scholastic Australia. The book became a bestseller in Australia within its first month of release and received praise for its fast-paced storytelling, humour, and strong visual style. The sequel, Into the Dragon’s Nest, was released in August 2025. The series has already attracted interest from film and television production companies.

Beyond his writing, Thomas is also a passionate mentor, speaker, and industry advocate. He has delivered keynote speeches for Scholastic at the Halogen Young Leaders Conference (speaking to over 10,000 kids in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide) and presented workshops and masterclasses for emerging writers through organisations such as AFTRS (Australian Film, Television and Radio School), the Australian Writers’ Guild, and Bus Stop films.