George Kemp is a writer based on Gadigal land in Sydney whose critically acclaimed debut novel, Soft Serve, was published in February 2026. He was selected to be part of the Faber Academy in 2023–2024, during which he completed the first draft of Soft Serve. He is a graduate of Charles Sturt University and has a Master’s from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London. George won the Australian Theatre for Young People Foundation Commission Award 2020 for his play Shack (published by Playlab). Since the premiere production in 2022, Shack has been performed frequently around the country and internationally. Shack is on the new 2026 NSW Drama Curriculum and is in the early stages of development for television. George's latest short story, 'Down Dog’, will appear in Griffith Review in early 2027.
George is also an experienced and passionate educator and mentor. He is currently Producer, New Writing & Artist Development at Australian Theatre for Young People, and has taught writing for the Faber Academy, Varuna and Writing NSW. He also previously had a successful career as an actor across Australia and England, in productions including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Cyrano de Bergerac (Sydney Theatre Company), and national and international tours of The Play that Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong.
