After appearances in shows such as Paradise Beach as a teenager, he moved to Sydney immediately after graduating high school to pursue his performing career.
In 1996 he received their annual Lend Lease scholarship which took him to New York to study acting at the Atlantic Theatre Company where he trained under instructors including David Mamet, William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman.
[citation needed] After being seen in a performance at ATYP, Trent was cast as the titular lead in Storm Boy in a national tour by Bell Shakespeare Company.
In Australia he is perhaps best known for playing autistic schoolboy Mikey Dunn[2] in the Australian soap opera Home and Away.
While continuing to perform in film and television, his work as an actor became secondary to what was becoming a full-time writing career.