Tim McGarry

Tim McGarry is an Australian actor, playwright, and theatre director.

Early life and education McGarry was born in the inner Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst and for some time he lived in the New South Wales town of Cootamundra.

The fourth of five children, he went to St Patrick's, Kogarah, and Sacred Heart Cootamundra, and completed high school at Marist College Kogarah.

McGarry started acting on stage at the age of 13 with amateur theatre groups around Sydney.

He moved to Perth in 1985 to study theatre at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). He later studied directing through the National Institute of Dramatic Art Open Program.

Career McGarry made his professional debut in the WA State Theatre Company's production of The Sentimental Bloke

In 1989 he toured nationally in Gordon Frost's production of Big River – The Musical. He performed and toured extensively for the Wollongong-based company Theatre South, and in 1997, along with Eva Di Cesare and Sandra Eldridge, founded Monkey Baa Theatre Company. The company was incorporated in 2005. Between 2005-2017 he was a Co-Creative Director and Producer, and Monkey Baa became one of Australia's largest touring companies for young audiences.

In 2008 McGarry was one of three Australian’s selected by ASSITEJ, the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (a global network for professionals, making work for children and young audiences), to take part in a three-year international leadership program which saw him partake in theatre laboratories, forums and festivals in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and Japan.

In 2009 McGarry co-adapted and performed the one man show I am Jack in over 450 performances touring extensively through Australia. In 2014 he toured the work to 17 cities throughout the USA and was interviewed by the writer Vivian Kirkfield on the subject of bullying which was the theme of the show.

McGarry was instrumental in developing and presenting The Sydney Opera House's Inaugural Digital Outreach Program – co-writing and co-hosting the live feed into hundreds of regional and remote Australian classrooms reaching thousands of remote students and their teachers.

In 2018, along with his other Monkey Baa co-founders, Eva Di Cesare and Sandra Eldridge, he received a Sydney Theatre Award for 20 years of excellence and extraordinary service to the children and young people of Australia.

Also in 2018 McGarry was commissioned by Queensland Theatre to adapt Trent Dalton's best-selling novel Boy Swallows Universe. The work had its world premiere at the 2021 Brisbane Festival, and performed to sell-out houses. The Guardian review said "Boy Swallows Universe, adapted for the stage by Tim McGarry, is a gritty, raucous, and mystical juggernaut of a play that prosecutes a booming argument for the supremacy of the live theatre experience". and the play broke box office records

In 2020 McGarry was interviewed by Alice Nguyen about his stage adaptation of Margaret Wild and Jane Tanner's picture book, There's a Sea in My Bedroom as part of the "When I was Little" series.

His adaptation of Colleen McCullough’s novel Tim toured New South Wales in 2023. In 2025 Tim's adaptation of Trent Dalton’s Love Stories. produced by Brisbane Festival and QPAC, toured QLD, NSW, NT, ACT and New Zealand. He also created a new work Being Beethoven for CDP Theatre Producers.

His adaptation of Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut premiered in Black Swan State Theatre Company’s 2026 season. Additionally, McGarry's new musical adaptation of Nick Bland’s The Very Cranky Bear, featuring original music by Gabbi Bolt, premieres at the Sydney Opera House in December 2026 ahead of a national tour.

McGarry has sat on the MEAA's National Performers Committee, the board of Arts on Tour Ltd, and the Sydney Arts Management Advisory Group (SAMAG).

Awards and nominations 2007 - Winner, Helpmann Awards for Hitler's Daughter (Writer) 2010 - Winner, Helpmann Awards for Thursday's Child (Writer) 2010 - Winner, Glugs Award - FOX (Writer) 2015 - Nomination Helpmann Award, Pete the Sheep (Writer) 2016 - Winner, Sydney Theatre Critics Award, Best Production for Children - The Peasant Prince, The True Story of Mao's Last Dancer (Director) 2016 - Winner, Glugs Award, Best Production for Children - The Peasant Prince, The True Story of Mao's Last Dancer (Director) 2016 - Nomination, Glugs Awards, Best Independent Production, for My Name is Asher Lev (Actor) 2018 - Winner, Sydney Critics Special Award - Recognition of Contribution to theatre for young audiences throughout Australia 2019 - Winner, Sydney Theatre Critics Award, Diary of A Wombat (Writer)

Theatre

Film and television

Directing

Published works A number of McGarry’s adaptations have been published including: 2007 Jackie French's Hitler’s Daughter – Currency Press 2010 Morris Gleitzman's Worry Warts - Playlab Press 2011 Sonya Hartnett's Thursday’s Child 2015 Jackie French's Pete The Sheep – Currency Press 2018 Li Cunxin's The Peasant Prince – Currency Press 2022 Trent Dalton's Boy Swallows Universe – Harper Collins/Fourth Estate 2023 Colleen McCullough's Tim – Currency Press