He graduated from the acting course at National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1984, and went on to gain additional academic qualifications as well as writing and performing plays.
[3] His PhD thesis, from University of Sydney in 2015, was entitled "Real Human in this Fantastical World: Political, Artistic and Fictive concerns of actors in rehearsal: an ethnography".
[1] Crawford has acted with many of Australia's major theatre companies, as well as in television programs and films, including The Babadook and Stateless.
[4] In 2017 and 2018, he toured Australia, and to the Auckland and Singapore Arts Festivals, playing O'Brien in Headlong, Almeida Theatre, and Nottingham Playhouse's production of Duncan MacMillan and Robert Icke's adaptation of George Orwell's 1984.
[7][8] He has also been a director at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and a guest at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (Paris).