Tristan Jepson

{{Short description|Australian law graduate and writer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}

Tristan Jepson (1978 – 28 October 2004) was an Australian law graduate and writer.

He was educated at Trinity Grammar School and the University of New South Wales. While still an undergraduate law student, he began to write and perform comedy as director of the University of New South Wales' Law Revue. On graduation in 2003, he joined the cast of the AFI Award nominated sketch comedy TV programme Big Bite, where he was perhaps best known for impersonations of Tom Gleisner in parody sketches of The Panel.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1406925 Biography for Tristan Jepson on IMDB]

Diagnosed with clinical depression in 1998, Jepson suffered bouts during his university years and suicided by drug overdose, aged 26.{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/09/06/1157222202502.html |first=Alan |last=Mascharenas |title=Down by law, with the black dog |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=7 September 2006 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/its-time-to-talk/story-e6frg8h6-1226010786783|title=It's time to talk|first=Kate|last=Legge|work=The Australian|date=26 February 2011|access-date=30 April 2013}}

The Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation, named in his honor, is an organisation which works to foreground issues of mental illness in the law, including law students, graduates, practicing lawyers, and judges.[http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2007/2101684.htm 'Lawyers and Depression – Part 1'. Life Matters, Radio National. 27 November 2007] The foundation changed its name to Minds Count in 2018.[https://mindscount.org/wp-content/uploads/MINDS-COUNT-Media-Release-July-2018.pdf Press Release], 10 July 2018. Accessed 24 June 2019.

In 2006 the University of New South Wales inaugurated an annual Tristan Jepson Memorial Lecture.{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/09/06/1157222202502.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2|title=Down by law, with the black dog|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=7 September 2006|access-date=30 April 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://www.cle.unsw.edu.au/seminars/docs/2006/Jepson_Towards_Managing_Mental_Wellness.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2008-07-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720043914/http://www.cle.unsw.edu.au/seminars/docs/2006/Jepson_Towards_Managing_Mental_Wellness.pdf |archivedate=20 July 2008}}