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Darcy-Lee Tindale

For over twenty years, Darcy was the Speech & Drama Coordinator at Abbotsleigh School for Girls in Wahroonga, NSW. She is also an actor, author, theatresports player, director, and has appeared on television, in TV commercials, film, and on stage.

She has penned comedy for radio, stage, media personalities, comedians and theatre restaurants. Her creative work - including plays, poems, articles, and short stories - has featured in numerous publications, including The School Magazine, Celapene Press, Tincture, ZineWest, Black & Blue Publications, Penguin Books, Bumples Magazine, Birdcatcher Books, Newcastle Anthology, Stringybark Publications, Curiouser Magazine, Buzz Words, and Storm Cloud USA. Her children’s books are published with McGraw-Hill Education, and middle-grade reader Thumb Pickles and Other Cautionary Preserves is published with Woodslane Publishers.

Darcy's work has received significant recogonition, earning nominations and awards from the CBCA Frustrated Writers, Varuna Writers House, Narda Lyn, Di Cranston National Literary Award, Monash University Undergraduate Prize, Stringybark, SD Harvey Short Story (Australian Crime Writers Association Ned Kelly Awards), Newcastle Writers Award, CA Broadribb Award, Scarlet Stiletto Award and The Writer Around the Murray Award.

In 2022, Darcy was named one of six finalists in the 2022 Penguin Books Literary Prize for her Adult Crime Novel, The Fall Between. Following this achievement, she was offered a literary contract with Penguin Books Australia for her Detective Giles series. Darcy’s first two novels have since been signed, and her first novel, The Fall Between, was released in May 2023; her second novel, Burning Mountain, followed in April 2025.

In 2024, her novel The Fall Between was nominated for The Davitt and The Ned Kelly Awards for Best Debut Crime Novel.

Both novels have since been released in the UK & the USA with Bloodhound Books.

As a director, Darcy has worked with theatres such as Newtown Theatre, St Martin’s Theatre in Victoria, Parramatta Riverside Theatre, State Theatre, Belvoir Theatre, and the Seymour Centre. At Abbotsleigh she directed and produced a wide array of productions including Annie, Les Miserable’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Witches, Apples & Snow, Mulan, Pumpkins & Mice, The Twits, Arabian Nights, Treasure Island, James and the Giant Peach, Beanstalk, Tails of Hamelin, The BFG, Into the Woods, Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Hairspray.

Her love of quick wit plays a large part in her passion for Theatresports. She was a long-time performer with IMPROAustralia, appearing in shows across NSW, including Mixed Shaken and Stirred at the Belvoir Theatre alongside Daniel Cordeaux from television's Thank God You're Here, and regularly at the Roxbury, Harold Park, Clarence, and Bondi Pavilion Theatre. Darcy has also been a judge and host for The Schools' Theatresports Challenge.

Darcy is an author and speaker with the Australian Society of Authors, Writing NSW, Penguin Books, and CreativeNet. She is regularly invited to Literary Festivals and schools as a visiting author, where she conducts workshops for students and adults on short story writing, playwriting, plotting and character, and other aspects of the writing craft. In 2016, she was delighted to be a guest speaker at The School Magazine’s 100th birthday celebration.

Darcy’s training is extensive: she has studied the Meisner and Chubbuck Techniques, trained with NIDA, The Actors Pulse, STC, and AFTRS, and holds ATCL Performers, ATCL Communications, and FTCL Directors Trinity Guildhall Diplomas. In addition, she holds a certificate in Forensic Anthropology and Archaeology from Durham University (UK) and a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature from Griffith University.