Her first play, Dog Wins Lotto, was produced by the Queensland Theatre Company in 1997.[3] Her second play, The Postcard, won the George Landen Dann Award in 1999.[4] The following year she won a fellowship to the Royal Court Theatre in London as writer-in-residence.[4]
She subsequently won a State Library of Victoria creative fellowship (2008), Kit Denton Fellowship (2012), Patrick White Playwrights' Fellowship (2013), Kim Williams' Fellowship Award (2015) and Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship (2017).[1]
Her play for young adults, Hoods, was first staged at the Sydney Opera House in 2006.[5] It won the inaugural Richard Wherrett Prize and the Stage Award for Theatre for Young People at the 2007 AWGIE Awards.[1]
Betzien is co-founder of an independent theatre company called RealTV (also Real TV) with theatre director and filmmaker Leticia Cáceres.[6] Their work for young audiences include Hoods, War Crimes and Children of the Black Skirt.[7]
Betzien was one of the screenwriters for Total Control (2019–2021), produced by Blackfella Films for ABC Television[8] and for Secret City (2019) produced by Matchbox Pictures and Foxtel.[9]
