Duncan Sarkies is a screenwriter, playwright, novelist and short story writer. In New Zealand he is best known for writing the hit black comedy Scarfies with his brother Robert Sarkies. He wrote two episodes for the HBO TV series Flight of the Conchords and an episode of What We Do In The Shadows for FX. In Australia he script edited and helped storyline for Soul Mates, by comedians the Van Vuuren Brothers and Nick Boshier. He has worked as a script consultant for a wide variety of people, including Debra Granik, the Pan-Asian Screen Collective and Jemaine Clement.
From 2016-2020 he wrote and directed The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium, an epic radio series that received rave reviews from The Guardian, the LA Times and the New Zealand Herald. He has written three novels including Two Little Boys which was brought to life as a feature film by Robert Sarkies in 2012, and starred Hamish Blake and Bret McKenzie. His third novel Star Gazers, an allegory about the collapse of democracy in a society of alpaca breeders, was published in 2025 to excellent reviews. He plans to one day adapt it into a television series.
