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Character Profiles > Tyler Brennan Travis Burns

Tyler Brennan 2015-
Lives: 24 Ramsay Street
Parents: Russell
Silbings: Mark, Aaron
Occupation: Mechanic

The reckless, troublemaking younger brother of sensible Mark Brennan, Tyler arrived in Erinsborough looking for his sibling, but immediately made an impression on some of the other locals. After finding Imogen Willis passed out in the uni courtyard, following a toga party the night before, he checked her ID, and then, despite her protests, picked her up and carried her to his motorbike. When a hungover Imogen explained what had happened, her dad Brad and brother Josh were annoyed that she'd put herself at risk, and that this mystery man now knew her address. Imogen admitted that, other than the motorbike, all she could remember about the guy was that he had a big tattoo on the inside of his arm, so when Tyler later turned up at Harold's Store and started annoying Imogen's friend Daniel and her half-sister Paige, a huge argument broke out when Daniel spotted the tattoo and realised who he was. As the fight started to get physical, the three of them were dragged off to the police station, where Tyler was forced to call on his brother to help him out.

Mark was shocked to find that his little brother was in town and already causing trouble, and wondered why he'd turned up. Tyler explained that he'd seen a mechanic's job at the garage where Mark worked and had come to apply for it. At first, Mark wasn't keen on having Tyler around, admitting to his friend Toadie that he hadn't been close to his family for a long time, ever since he'd first left the family home in Port Lincoln, when Tyler was 13 years old, and joined the police force. Realising that perhaps it was time to start making more of an effort, Mark told Tyler that he could stay, and was welcome to apply for the job.

As he started work, Tyler attracted the attention of local criminal Dennis Dimato, who owned Grease Monkeys, one of the businesses opposite the garage. Needing a mechanic on side, Dimato offered Tyler some work - at first reluctant, Tyler then realised that he could use the money for rent and agreed to help. He met with Dimato's associate Michelle, who showed Tyler a Ford Capri and said that Dimato wanted it to be stripped for parts within 3 days. Tyler agreed to do it, and asked if he could have the money in advance, if he agreed to do the job within 48 hours instead. But when Tyler went to start the work, he found Imogen's library card inside, quickly realising that it was Hermione, her car that had recently been stolen. Knowing how upset she'd been about the whole thing, he went to Dimato asked if he could buy the car, and was surprised when Dimato told him that he could keep the car, and the money, but he now owed him a very big favour. Now getting in deeper than he'd like with Dimato, Tyler's situation then worsened significantly when he found out that Mark was returning to the police force, and was making it his personal mission to bring down Dimato. Though Tyler did his best to change Mark's mind, claiming that he was scared that he'd lose his big brother all over again - after Mark's stint as a detective had led to him having to go into witness protection and fake his own death a few years earlier - he was unable to talk him out of rejoining the force.

Tyler then attempted to take his mind off his work troubles by spending time with Paige, who, unfortunately, was trying very hard to ignore her feelings for her ex, Mark, as he began a new relationship with Naomi Canning. After having a few drinks together, they went back to 24 Ramsay Street so Tyler could change his clothes, but after seeing a note that Naomi had left for Mark, Paige changed her mind about going out and pounced on Tyler. However, Paige suddenly backtracked as she looked into Tyler's eyes and couldn't stop thinking about Mark, and she fled the house, leaving Tyler confused. Though they then got closer once again, Tyler backed off completely when, during a passionate kiss, she sighed and called him 'Brennan'. Now aware that she hadn't moved on completely from Mark, he decided that he wasn't going to be her consolation prize.

With Mark closing in on Dimato, Tyler realised that he had to avoid getting into any criminal activities, but when his big brother pushed him too far and humiliated him in public for his childish behaviour, Tyler agreed to help Michelle and Dimato by stealing some more cars. The plan quickly went wrong when Tyler stole a car that had a tracking device fitted by the police, and they followed him to the container yard where he was meeting Dimato. Tyler then managed to escape, hiding in a bin until the police had gone, but Dimato was arrested. However, with little evidence sticking to him, he was bailed a few days later and immediately went to Tyler and accused him of setting the whole thing up. Tyler insisted that he'd known nothing about the police sting, but Dimato wasn't satisfied, and wanted Tyler to continue working for him, taking apart the stolen cars at the garage. When Tyler refused to help, and mentioned that the garage was about to be sold anyway, Dimato swooped in, arranging for one of his associates to buy it on his behalf. He then told Tyler that he could keep his job, and would be spending his evenings working on the stolen cars - and with Dimato preparing to flee the country, it would all be under Michelle's supervision.

Tyler's friendship with Imogen also started to develop into something more, as he helped her to come out of her shell a little bit. The pair ended up playing strip poker at the men's shed, and Imogen was forced to hide in her underwear when Kyle turned up, confronted by a naked Tyler, who acted like his behaviour was perfectly normal. Having enjoyed herself, Imogen arranged another date at a paint-balling centre, where she explained that she and Josh had gone paint-balling on their 11th, 13th and 15th birthdays, and she was something of an expert. Afterwards, Imogen struggled to control herself when Tyler went for a shower and returned in just a towel, but just as things were progressing, she made her excuses and left, and admitted to Paige that she'd wanted to go further, but had always imagined her first time would be with 'her forever guy' and she wasn't sure if Tyler was that man.

As it became clear that Imogen still had feelings for Daniel, things between her and Tyler soon came to an end, and he found himself forced to spend more time with Paige, as she found out about his dodgy dealings at the garage. She then became embroiled herself when her younger brother Bailey stole one of the cars that had been left on the forecourt for Tyler to strip down. Not wanting Bailey to get into trouble with the police, Paige agreed to help out at the garage, as Michelle blackmailed her with CCTV footage of Bailey taking the car. Unable to reveal the truth, Paige and Tyler pretended to be in a relationship, to cover for the amount of time they were spending together - but quickly found themselves out of their depth when they were asked to drop off a large sum of money to a shady character at Lassiter's. With lots of police - including Mark -present for a charity sausage sizzle, they quickly decided that they'd have to hide the bag of money in the well, and come back for it later. As they went back, they found themselves stuck down the well as there were people nearby, and in the close proximity, things got passionate between them, though they realised that it was a mistake as she was clearly still hung up on Tyler's brother. Having recovered the money, they found that some of it was missing, eventually finding out that hotel receptionist Glen Darby had taken it to buy a gift for his sick mother. Unable to get the money back, and with Michelle's heavies closing in, Tyler ended up receiving a bashing.

With only Paige and Tyler aware of the truth behind his injuries, he was forced to lie to everyone else that he'd been involved in a motorbike accident, covering up just how much pain he was in. Desperate to help, Paige stole some blank prescriptions from Dr Karl Kennedy, allowing Tyler to continue taking stronger painkillers, but he quickly became reliant on them, and found himself stealing another prescription pad from Karl. Meanwhile, Michelle's heavies were still looking for the missing money, but when Nate went down to the garage, having arranged to meet Tyler, he found himself caught up in the whole mess, but his self-defence training kicked in and he quickly stopped Michael Coluzzi. When a concerned Tyler and Paige arrived, they were shocked by the scene that awaited them, and were forced to reveal everything to Nate, who agreed to pay their debt for them. With one problem solved, Tyler's theft of the prescriptions soon came back to haunt him when Kyle collapsed and was taken to hospital, and when Karl went to check on some medication he'd previously prescribed to Kyle, he noticed that some sheets were missing from his pad. With Nate - who was aware of the theft and has agreed to cover it up - falling under suspicion, Tyler realised that he had to come clean, and he went to the hospital to confess to Karl. With Mark called in, Tyler learnt that he could be facing police charges, but continued to try and hide his involvement with Dimato. Mark, meanwhile, had been getting closer and closer to the truth, and realised that Tyler had been lying about the motorbike accident, but wrongly believed that Dimato and his heavies had been threatening an innocent Tyler. With a sympathetic Mark asking more and more questions, Tyler finally snapped and admitted that he'd been working for Dimato for months.

After telling Mark the full story, Tyler found himself taken to the police station, and thrown out of number 24. Fortunately, middle Brennan brother Aaron had since come to stay - shocking Mark with his new career as an exotic dancer - and did his best to support Tyler, as Mark started to give up on him. After realising just how far Tyler had fallen, the Kennedys offered him a second chance and somewhere to stay. When Karl's guitar later went missing, Tyler immmediately fell under suspicion, and in the ensuing argument, Karl used the expression 'We'll thrash it out at home' causing Tyler to lose his temper. Mark later explained to Karl that it was an expression that their father had used a lot, and Tyler hadn't had a great relationship with him, though little did Mark realise just how badly Tyler had been treated by their dad - after both Mark and Aaron had left home, Tyler had spent years suffering beatings at his father's hands. Karl then managed to get Tyler to open up a little bit about the problems he'd had with his dad, but troubled Tyler stil kept the extent of the problem to himself.

Still desperate to make things up to Mark, Tyler thought he'd found the perfect opportunity, when the police offered to help him get a reduced, or even suspended, sentence, in return for helping them to catch Dimato. The sting operation ended badly, however, when Tyler attempted to get away with some evidence during a meeting with Dimato and his associates, and the police arrived just in time to stop him from being hurt, catching Dimato and Michelle - but in the chaos, the evidence was lost. Hopeful that his problems were behind him, Tyler focused on getting his life back to normal, and found a new friendship with teenager Ben Kirk, the grandson of Karl and Susan, who'd come to stay for a few weeks. Tyler was also saddened to realise that Mark and Paige were rekindling their relationship, as he'd always hoped that their fake relationship might develop into something more - but worse was to come when, just as he was planning to move back into the Brennan house, he noticed his dad arriving. Tyler panicked and did a disappearing act, leaving Mark and Aaron confused by his behaviour. Eventually realising that he'd have to face his dad, Tyler spoke to Russell, who insisted that he'd changed and wanted to put the past behind him. Though still uncomfortable around Russell, Tyler did his best to behave normally, eventually even agreeing to move back into number 24. However, Tyler's reservations grew as he realised that, having developed a relationship with Sheila Canning, Russell was planning to make a permanent move to Erinsborough and buy the garage which, since Dimato's arrest, had gone up for sale.

As he and Ben were going to be working on the motorbike, Tyler reluctantly agreed when Russell offered to help out and together father and son played a joke on Ben. But when Ben then got his own back by pulling Russell's trousers down, Tyler was horrified by his father's reaction, as Russell started shouting at Ben, telling him to show more respect. The incident was also witnessed by Karl from across the street and, as Tyler had since confided in him about his father beating him up, he was concerned for Ben's safety, and insisted that he no longer wanted Russell to be anywhere near his grandson. Though Ben and Susan were confused by Karl's reaction to the incident, it did make Tyler realise that he wasn't to blame for his past, but as he slowly found the strength to confront Russell, an argument broke out, which ended with Tyler punching his dad in the face. When Mark found out what had happened, he assumed that Tyler was in the wrong and went to find him, struggling to believe his brother when Tyler opened up about the violence he'd suffered. However, when Mark then went to speak to Russell, he realised that it was true, and he and Aaron went to see Tyler and apologised for allowing it to happen, insisting that he now had their full support. Russell was soon sent packing by his sons and he returned home to Port Lincoln, telling Sheila that he would get the help that he needed to deal with what he'd done.

Finally able to start moving on from his past, Tyler soon found that there might be hope for him and Paige too. Though she was now dating Mark, Tyler was quick to notice the problems in the relationship, particularly in the age difference, and was on hand whenever Paige needed a break from the grown-up conversations, and just wanted to have a little fun. Things at work, however, were less rosy, when the garage was broken into - but when Paige helped Tyler to track down the stolen tools, their celebrations took a surprising turn when he kissed her. Paige was quick to pull away, and Tyler apologised for his behaviour, but he was now convinced that he and Paige should be together. When he learnt that Mark was hoping to start a family with Paige - who had no interest in having kids herself for at least a few more years - Tyler wasted little time in stirring things up, encouraging his brother to talk to her, and damaging their relationship in the process. However, Aaron soon realised what Tyler was up to, and warned him that it would all end in tears. Paige and Tyler then did their best to avoid each other, but during a sleepover at Erinsborough High, attended by many of the locals as a protest to stop the school from being closed down, they were stuck in the lift together when a fire broke out. Tyler took the opportunity to admit that he had been interfering in Paige's relationship with Mark, because he was in love with her and always had been. A shocked Paige admitted that she was confused about her feelings for Tyler, but before the conversation could get much deeper, Tyler passed out from smoke inhalation and the pair were rescued by Mark.

Trivia Notes
• Tyler appeared on screen briefly at the end of episode 7055, but had no lines and was not credited for this appearance
• Mark and Tyler also have another brother, as well as a sister - Tyler is the youngest of the four siblings. When Tyler first arrived, Mark suggested that he should go and visit 'Aaron' who works in the mines, though it is not made clear whether this is their other brother
• The Brennan siblings' father tried to get his children interested in his trade as a mechanic, but Tyler was the only one who developed a genuine interest in it