AustLit

Tes Lyssiotis was born in Australia of Greek parents. She trained as a drama/media teacher at Rusden State College, and taught drama in secondary schools for eight years before becoming a fulltime writer and director. Her first professionally toured work was 'I'll Go to Australia and Wear a Hat' in 1982. Much of Lyssiotis's early writing is bi-lingual or multi-lingual.

In 1984 she founded Filiki Players with actors Nikos Zarkadas and Lu Beranek. Her work has been read at La Mama Theatre between 1982 and 1988 and also on ABC Radio. She was playwright in residence at la Trobe University in 1991. A pioneer in multi-lingual theatre, her play 'Hotel Bonegilla' has been performed in many languages such as English, German and Greek.

Lyssiotis has two children with her husband, the photographer and writer Peter Lyssiotis.

(Major sources: A White Sports Coat and Other Plays, 1996 and The Immigrant Experience in Australian Literature, 1995)