Phillip Gwynne is one of eight children and grew up in country South Australia. He played Australian Rules football for Woodville before a serious knee injury finished his career. Phillip has a degree in Marine Biology and has worked in a number of jobs including computer programming.

Phillip Gwynne's first novel Deadly, Unna? was the literary hit of 1998. It went on to win numerous awards including highly coveted 1999 Children's Book Council's Book of the Year Award (older readers), Children's Peace Literature Award, SA Festival Award for Children's Literature and the 1999 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction. It has now sold over 160,000 copies.

The German translation of Deadly, Unna? was short listed for a prestigious literary award in Germany, and Phillip received an Australia Council grant to attend the Berlin Literary Festival in September 2003.

Phillip has since written The Worst Team Ever and Born To Bake for the Aussie Bites series, and Nukkin Ya, the eagerly awaited sequel to Deadly, Unna?. Nukkin Ya was short-listed for several awards and was deemed a notable book by the Children's Book Council in 2001. It has recently been published in Germany. Jetty Rats was published in February 2004 by Penguin.

Australian Rules, the critically regarded feature movie based on Deadly, Unna? was selected for a number of international and local film festivals including Sundance, Edinburgh, Stockholm and closing night of the Melbourne Film Festival. Australian Rules was nominated for 18 Awards and in 2002 Phillip won the AFI award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Build Up, an adult crime fiction novel based in Darwin will be published in August 2008 by Pan MacMillan and has already received 4 and a half stars out of a possible five by Australian Bookseller and Publisher. Phillip is currently working on Capital Of The Second Chance, the sequel to The Build Up and The Entrance, a YA novel.

Phillip has also been employed as an outside script reader for The Australian Film Commission and the Tropfest Feature Program.

He lives in the Blue Mountains with his wife and three children.

Published Works

• Deadly, Unna?
• Nukkin Ya!
• Worst Team Ever
• Jetty Rats
• Born To Bake
• The Build Up (2008)

Films

• Australian Rules

Awards

• Deadly, Unna?
Winner - 1999 Family Award for Children's Books
Winner - 1999 Victorian Premier's Literary Award - Young Adult Division
Winner - 2000 CBC Book of the Year - Older Readers
Winner - 2000 S.A. Festival Award for Literature - Book of the Year
Winner - 2000 W.A. Young Readers Book Award (WAYRA) - Older Readers
Winner - 1999 Children's Peace Literature Award
Shortlisted - 2002 New South Wales State Literary Award
Shortlisted - 2002 Deutschen Jugendliteraturpreis
Highly Commended Family Award for Children's Books

• Australian Rules
Winner 2002 AFI Best Adapted Screenplay

• Nukkin Ya!
Shortlisted - 2002 New South Wales State Literary Award
Shortlisted - 2002 S.A. Festival Award for Literature - Best Book
Shortlisted - 2004 CBC Book of the Year - Older Readers
Notable Book - 2004 CBC Book of the Year - Older Readers

• Jetty Rats
Shortlisted - 2005 New South Wales State Literary Award
Shortlisted - 2005 S.A. Festival Award for Literature - Book of the Year
Honour Book - 2005 CBC Book of the Year - Older Readers

Personal

• 2000 Federation Medal For Services to Children's Literature