Tommy Murphy was born in 1979 in Queanbeyan, the seventh of eight children. He is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Director's course) and the University of Sydney where he was president of Sydney University Dramatic Society. He was winner of the Sydney Theatre Company Young Playwrights' Award and the ACT Young Writers' Award for his first play, For God, Queen and Country. His second play Troy's House has been performed in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. Strangers in Between and Holding the Man were commissioned, developed and premiered by the Griffin Theatre Company where Tommy was in residence. Strangers in Between won the 2006 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Best Play.