After leaving Home and Away, he spent four years in London writing, researching and presenting television for ITV, BBC, Channel Four and Cable.

[2] In 1999, Tristan left London to return to Australia to appear in Ivan Sen's short drama Dust as well as Beneath Clouds and Remote Area Nurse.

Since his return, Tristan has made a number of short films as writer and director, including adaptations of two award-winning stories – Sarah Armstrong's The Long Wet and John Campbell's The New Boots.

It aims to inspire primary school classes all over the country to spend the first five minutes of every day changing the world in some small way.

His first Young Adult novel, It's Yr Life, co-written by former Home and Away actress and author Tempany Deckert, was released in June 2009.