Abigail Tarttelin is an award-winning author, screenwriter, actress, and musician. She grew up in North East England, and has been involved in theatre since the age of 8. At 14 she became one of the first 100 members of the National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth, labeling her academic abilities within the top 5% of the population. She later gained 10 A* GCSEs and 5 A Grade A Levels.
At sixteen Abigail trained with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and went on to play a lead role in their 2007 season. Abigail then studied 'Acting For Film' at the New York Film Academy school in France, acting in over 20 short films. Of these films, La Geode, by New York artist Theresa Hong, appeared in the Official Selection of the New York, LA and Strasbourg Short Film Festivals. 'Stress', a short film by artist Evita Robinson, was also well received. Abigail also worked with Washington DC design company 'Dissident Display' on a film project at this time.
In 2008 Abigail shot for 'Philip Pullman's The Butterfly Tattoo', an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Philip Pullman (author of 'The Golden Compass'), which was released in UK & US cinemas in 2009. At this time Abigail also shot for British gangster film 'Jack Says', which was the last film of English actor and treasure Mike Reid, and as the three lead characters in Schrodinger's Girl, a science fiction feature film concerning quantum tunneling and cross-dimensional travel, which premiered in San Diego, California in 2009, in the Official Selection of the Comic-Con Independent Film Festival. She was named a 'One To Watch' in 2009 by Moviescope Magazine for her body of work.
As a writer, she is best known for Golden Boy, “a grippingly innovative” coming-of-age novel with a “radical non-binary, pro-intersex message” (Autostraddle). Golden Boy is the winner of an Alex Award from the American Library Association, a LAMBDA Literary Award Finalist for Best LGBT Debut, a Booklist Top Ten First Novel of 2013, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2013, and is published in eight languages.
Also a screenwriter, Abigail has served as a juror for the British Independent Film Awards, and is currently working on the Duck Soup/BBC Films adaptation of Golden Boy. Her journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Glamour, Phoenix, Oh Comely, and The Huffington Post. She is the recipient of awards from The Authors Foundation and The K Blundell Trust in Great Britain.
Abigail lives in London and enjoys traveling and working worldwide.
